ETC announces testing that shows several of the company’s fixtures are reaching higher L70 ratings than originally anticipated. L70 is a common rating system used throughout the LED fixture industry. There is, however, some confusion as to what the standard does and does not define.
When an incandescent fixture reaches its end of life; it simply stops working. With LED fixtures it’s not as obvious because LEDs slowly get dimmer over time. The L70 rating was created as a way to measure when the LEDs of a fixture are no longer “useful.” This rating is determined from an outcome of testing to the LM84 standard and gives a representation of the amount of hours it will take for LEDs to depreciate to 70% of their original output.
The LM84 standard is complex and can take thousands of hours to complete. Because of this, ETC elected to send full LED fixtures to a nationally recognized, third party test lab for comprehensive evaluation. This lab tests fixtures in an environment that replicates how the end user will use them.
According to the company press release, “One of the biggest misconceptions of the L70 rating is that it applies to the entire fixture when in fact, it only applies to the LEDs themselves. The way a fixture is manufactured, including the quality of thermal management systems, heavily dictates the life expectancy of the LEDs. ETC sends the full fixture for testing, to improve confidence that the LED rating for the fixture will not be impacted by additional hardware or software components.”
Testing results are reported by ETC as follows:
Fixture before LM84 testing after LM84 testing
ColorSource Spot 20,000 hours 54,000 hours
Source Four LED Lustr+ 20,000 hours 54,000 hours
Because of the testing results, ETC reports the following warranty changes will apply to these LED products sold after January 1st, 2018.
All full ETC LED fixtures now hold a:
- 5 year full fixture warranty
- 10 year LED array warranty
All ETC Source 4WRD products continue to hold a 3 year warranty
For more information about the testing, visit http://www.etcconnect.com/LEDwarranty.
