Mar. 07, 2024
Lights & Lighting
There're two types of Lighting Facts labels that are repectively developed by two U.S. federal organizations: the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Energy's Solid-State Lighting program (DOE-SSL). These labels were driven by the need to assist the general public in the transition from their knowledge of traditional incandescent "bulbs" to those different technologies of higher efficacy and longer life (CFL and LED). The FTC label is inspired to educate the public at the retail level and is mandatory, while the DOE label is voluntary and designed to educate all levels of potential LED users and support a successful implementation of LED technology into both residential and commercial applications. In essence, the DOE label is for industry use and applies only to solid state lighting products, the FTC label is for consumers and applies to all lamps with medium screw bases.
FTC Lighting Facts Label
The Lighting Facts label is similar to the Nutrition Facts label on food packages. It gives consumers the knowledge they need to buy the most energy-efficient bulb to meet their lighting needs. The FTC Lighting Facts label must show up on packaging for lamps with medium screw bases. These lamps includes most incandescent, compact fluorescent (CFL), and light emitting diode (LED) light bulbs . The labels does not need approval by the FTC before they're placed on products but they must meet the FTC reporting requirements before distributing products.
The front of the packaging will provide information on brightness (lumen output) and estimated cost of use per year. The back of the package must include the FTC Lighting Facts label, which provides information on brightness, energy cost, the bulb's life expectancy, CCT reference (light appearance,e.g., if the bulb provides "warm" or "cool" light), and power consumed (wattage). In addition to the two labels on the packaging (front and back), lumen output and a "contains mercury" note (if applicable) are printed on the lamp itself. Therefore, once the lamp is separated from its packaging, instead of having knowledge of the lamp wattage, we now have a lumen-output value on the lamp. The FTC label does not require test procedures to verify performance claims.
You can download FTC label templates to create model-specific Lighting Facts labels for light bulbs.
DOE LED Lighting Facts Label
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solid State Lighting group is established to implement the widespread education and adoption of LED technology across all sectors. The DOE-SSL Lighting Facts Labels hence only apply to LED technology, and as a voluntary program can be applied to screw base and/or dedicated LEDs integral to a luminaire (which operate as a "system"). In this voluntary program, manufacturers of LED lighting products test their products and provide performance summaries in accordance with industry standards this enables retail buyers, utilities, lighting professionals, and energy efficiency sponsors who can count on a high level of customer satisfaction when comparing performance criteria such as lumens, efficacy (lm/w), power consumption, correlated color temperature (CCT), and color rendering index (CRI), contained in the LED Lighting Facts Label and in choosing the highest quality products to offer to their customer base.
The DOE label requires industry standard testing for all performance metrics. Participation in the DOE-SSL Lighting Facts labeling program requires manufacturers to provide the IES LM-79-08 Approved Method: Electrical and Photometric Measurements of Solid-State Lighting Products, testing data in support of the metrics on the label. LED technology is still new to the marketplace, and the use of IES LM-79-08 testing data to supply the performance metrics allows confident application of those LED products.
Lifetime is included on the FTC label but not the LED Lighting Facts label. At the moment there is no standard method for estimating the lifespan of an LED lamp, therefore lifetime is not included on the DOE label. LED Lighting Facts does allow manufacturers to specify a product's calculated lumen maintenance.
The standard DOE LED Lighting Facts label
The Extended DOE LED Lighting Facts Label (Including Lumen Maintenance and Warranty information)
These details appear on the Lighting Facts label:
Brightness
(in Lumens)
Estimated Energy Cost
(in $USD)
Life
(hours)
Light Appearance
(warm vs. cool, color temperature in degrees Kelvin)
Wattage
(energy consumed)
Recommended article:The data on a Lighting Facts label is obtained using test procedures established by the DOE.
Brightness
Brightness is shown as a measurement of light output in Lumens.
Lumens is a measurement of the quantity of visible light emitted from a single bulb. Lumens are a way we can express how lights of equal power, but different wavelengths, compare in brightness. The more lumens, the brighter the light produced.
Americans used to buy their light bulbs based upon the amount of wattage. Remember that watts measure energy usage, rather than brightness. If you focus on the lumens instead of watts, you can purchase lights that produce the amount of light you need for specific uses.
In each label, the average initial lumens are rounded to the nearest five.
Estimated Energy Cost
This section reveals the estimated annual energy cost of the bulb(s) in the package you bought, shown in dollars. This cost is also based on an average usage rate of 3 hours per day.
The cost is based upon:
Once you start comparing different types of light bulbs, you will see the advantages of LED bulbs versus traditional incandescent bulbs or fluorescent tubes.
Lifetime Hours
The “Life” data refers to the life of the bulb, expressed in years and rounded to the nearest tenth. Again, this is based on the average of 3 hours of operation per day.
One of the reasons this information is important to be displayed on all light bulbs, is that it allows you to compare a traditional incandescent bulb and an LED A19 or the lifetime average of a fluorescent linear tube and an LED tube.
Light Appearance - Warm vs. Cool & Color Temperature
The light appearance scale shows the comparison of the warmth or coolness of a light, along with the color temperature in degrees Kelvin. The lower the temperature, the warmer the look; the higher the temperature, the cooler the look.
Absolute color temperature is measured in degrees of Kelvin (K) on a scale from 1,000 to 10,000. This measurement allows you to describe the quality of a light. Typically, in commercial and residential lighting applications, Kelvin temperatures fall somewhere on a scale from about 2000K to 6500K. In this chart, the FTC requires a proportionate scale from 2600K to 6600K. You may see the term Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) used when discussing light or while referencing technical specs. This is a way to measure a light’s appearance in the warmth or coolness of the light emitted.
Warm Light – Red, amber, orange, and yellow
Cool Light – Green, blue, violet and purple
Wattage
Watts measure energy usage or how much energy is consumed. The standard in previous years was to shop for lights using their wattage. Example: a 60W bulb consumes 60 watts of energy.
On this label, wattage is expressed as energy used in average initial wattage.
In addition to what you will find clearly stated on the Lighting Facts label of each Sunco product, the technical specifications or specs are displayed on our website for your reference. Tech specs will help you define whether a particular bulb includes the light properties you require for each unique project.
Although Color Rendering Index (CRI) is not included on the Lighting Facts label it is key to analyze the quality of a light bulb.
Color Rendering Index (CRI)
This measurement indicates the accuracy of the light source. CRI is measured on a scale of 0-100, with 100 being the closest to natural sunlight.
High CRI features accurate color rendering and the textures of an item lit by the light source will stand out. Sunco's products usually run from CRI80 – CRI95 to provide you with clear definition and vibrant colors. High CRI is visually closer to sunlight.
The human eye recognizes unnatural colors when items are viewed under a low CRI light source. This is one reason lighting a retail business properly is so important. Otherwise, the consumer might find the item they purchase looks different when they view it in sunlight or at a higher CRI. You will easily see this when viewing items under traditional fluorescent linear tube lights in a clothing store and then viewing the item outside in sunlight.
You can see the Lighting Facts label in the Support tab of each Sunco LED product on our website. We also include the label on the packaging for each bulb.
Several of our blogs can help you learn more about the colors in the Visible Spectrum or explore more about warm/cool light and better understand color temperature. You can also learn more details about the elements of lighting under our Lighting 101 page.
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