Performance Testing of Lighting Products

This guidance note focuses on the performance testing of lighting products, and the interpretation and application of the results of those tests, as a tool for increasing energy efficiency. It is primarily aimed at countries that wish to implement new, or revised, testing procedures and use test data to support the development of their energy efficient lighting policies and compliance programmes. It serves as a practical resource for governments on recommended processes to follow for testing products, interpreting testing results, and using them to inform policy. It offers both specific and general recommendations that policymakers, laboratory personnel, and other stakeholders can use in developing testing programmes.
Testing is a fundamental step in creating lighting policy and transforming the market to energy efficient products. Broadly, tests help government and other stakeholders verify product performance. Assuring compliance with testing requirements, following a set of standard metrics, and providing proper testing facilities become necessary to launch or maintain a meaningful monitoring, verification and enforcement programme. Together with other collected product information, test data provides a snapshot of market energy performance, can be used to estimate achievable energy savings, and inform a host of decisions. How countries use the results can vary from one to the other, depending on their respective market, energy efficiency programmes and requirements, economics, and national culture.