DOE Releases Caliper Report on LED Downlights

Efficacy of LED downlights has only increased by one lm/W in the past 15 months.

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solid-State Lighting program has released a new CALiPER (Commercially Available LED Product Evaluation and Reporting) snapshot report for LED downlights. The key takeaways are as follows:

  • The efficacy of LED downlights is lower than for most other product categories, although it’s higher than for downlights using conventional light sources. About 50% of the downlights listed have a luminous efficacy greater than 70 lm/W, with only 2% above 100 lm/W.
  • The mean efficacy for downlight luminaires only increased by one lm/W in the past 15 months, while other comparable product types gained between 5 and 13 lm/W.
  • Most of the listed LED downlights fall into traditional lumen-output ranges for residential and commercial applications. A wide variety of performance is available.
  • The downlight category features a greater percentage of products with a CRI in the 90s than any other product category in the LED Lighting Facts database.


The summary goes on to say that the “efficacy trend with LED downlights is concerning” and “there’s substantial room for continued performance gains, which should not be overlooked.” The full report is available on the DOE SSL website.

Also of note, in the report’s LED Lighting Facts sidebar, is the following announcement:

“Due to changes in the market as well as in LED lamp testing requirements, LED Lighting Facts is no longer listing lamps. Previously listed lamps were removed from the database in December 2016. Luminaires and retrofit kits continue to be listed. Due to this change in listing status, all data for LED lamps, both current and historical, have been removed from the dataset used to generate this report. Accordingly, data for long-term trends may not exactly match previously published data. In February 2017, LED Lighting Facts launched a new analysis tool (Product Snapshot Analytics: http:// lightingfacts.com/Analytics) that allows users to generate, in real time, some of the data and charts shown in this report.”

Lamps comprised only 20% of the listed products in the September 2016 CALiPER Snapshot report. As of the latest report for downlighting (referenced above), the program counts 2,812 partners and 57,093 total active products.

About the Author

Elizabeth Donoff

Elizabeth Donoff is Editor-at-Large of Architectural Lighting (AL). She served as Editor-in-Chief from 2006 to 2017. She joined the editorial team in 2003 and is a leading voice in the lighting community speaking at industry events such as Lightfair and the International Association of Lighting Designers Annual Enlighten Conference, and has twice served as a judge for the Illuminating Engineering Society New York City Section’s (IESNYC) Lumen Award program. In 2009, she received the Brilliance Award from the IESNYC for dedicated service and contribution to the New York City lighting community. Over the past 11 years, under her editorial direction, Architectural Lighting has received a number of prestigious B2B journalism awards. In 2017, Architectural Lighting was a Top Ten Finalist for Magazine of the Year from the American Society of Business Publication Editors' AZBEE Awards. In 2016, Donoff received the Jesse H. Neal Award for her Editor’s Comments in the category of Best Commentary/Blog, and in 2015, AL received a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Media Brand (Overall Editorial Excellence).Prior to her entry into design journalism, Donoff worked in New York City architectural offices including FXFowle where she was part of the project teams for the Reuters Building at Three Times Square and the New York Times Headquarters. She is a graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, Me., and she earned her Master of Architecture degree from the School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis.

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