This brochure is the first of its kind and provides retailers with important, clearly defined screening criteria for objectively assessing the quality, efficiency and robustness of a white LED luminaire and thus furnishes retailers with important information and pointers for the assessment and selection process.
The LED is revolutionising the world of lighting and is seen in both retail and industry as the lighting of the future – especially in view of the massive advances in quality made in recent years. So the market for LEDs is growing fast. However, it is also flooded with products that do not always meet safety and quality requirements. This has given rise to considerable uncertainty and has done far more to hinder than help the LED become more accepted and established in the market. The LED is not a light source that can simply be inserted in place of another in an existing lighting concept. Nor is it one that allows an existing lighting concept to be easily supplemented by a new technology. At present, however, there are no technical or quality standards in place that objectively identify the differences in quality between LEDs from different suppliers. So how can retailers recognize and assess differences in product quality and lighting solutions? What are the key parameters? To provide a clearer picture, EHI Retail Institute teamed up with retailers and manufacturers in the EHI network membership and established a working group. In several meetings that group produced a set of clear benchmarks that are easy for retailers to compare – benchmarks that were then used to define LED quality features.