The Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Lighting Products) Regulations 2021

Regulations 7(2) and 8

SCHEDULE 5 Functionality after endurance testing

1.—(1) Models of LED and OLED light sources must undergo endurance testing to check their lumen maintenance factor and survival factor (see Table 1 of Schedule 2).

(2) The market surveillance authority must carry out endurance testing in accordance with the method set out in this Schedule.

2.—(1) The endurance test for LED and OLED light sources must be conducted as follows.

Ambient conditions and test set-up

(2) The switching cycles must be conducted in a room with—

(a) an ambient temperature of 25 ± 10°C; and

(b) an average air velocity of less than 0.2 m/s.

(3) The switching cycles on the sample must be conducted in free air in a vertical base-up position, unless a manufacturer or importer has declared the light source suitable for use in a specific orientation only, in which case the sample must be mounted in that orientation.

(4) The applied voltage during the switching cycles must have a tolerance within 2%, and the total harmonic content of the supply voltage must not exceed 3%.

(5) Light sources designed to be operated on mains voltage must be tested at 230 V, 50 Hz supply, even if the products are able to be operated on variable supply conditions.

Endurance test method

(6) The luminous flux of the light source must be measured prior to starting the endurance test switching cycle.

(7) The light source must be operated for 1,200 cycles of repeated, continuous switching cycles without interruption, and for this purpose—

(a) one complete switching cycle consists of 150 minutes of the light source switched ON at full power followed by 30 minutes of the light source switched OFF; and

(b) the hours of operation recorded (3,000 hours) include only the periods of the switching cycle when the light source was switched ON, so that the total test time is 3,600 hours.

(8) Subject to sub-paragraph (9), at the end of the 1,200 switching cycles the luminous flux of the light sources must be measured.

(9) Any light sources that have failed the test in accordance with the “Survival factor” in Table 1 in Schedule 2 must not be measured.

(10) For each of the units in the sample that did not fail, the measured final flux must be divided by the measured initial flux.

(11) The resulting values must be averaged over all the units that did not fail to compute the determined value for the lumen maintenance factor X_LMF%.