Does LED lamp really have a life of 50,000 hours
The main parts of the LED lamps are light source, power and structure (modules and lamp housing), so examining the life of lamp is mainly focused on these three aspects and its life is mainly determined by the light source and power supply. ENELTEC technical staff said, for the light source, first it needs to adopt the lamp beads which use has LM80 report; Secondly people have to check, whether the protection class of LED lamp beads is high enough; and finally look at the chip temperature, to see whether it is within the safe range of design. For power supply, check whether its remaining power is enough, to ensure its life is more than 50,000 hours. Meanwhile, check the manufacturing process to ensure the adequacy of MTBF.
Sales staff said, the purchaser can judge the authenticity by checking the provided testing report, which is recognized by national testing agencies, and the choice certification of key components, the theoretical data for lamp life and reputation of the company. And people could estimate the life value according to the LM80 reports and authoritative lighting temperature report (including pins). At present, the good quality lighting can achieve 2000H without light attenuation , 4000H <1%, 6000H <3%, 8000H <5%.
The life of LED lamp is based on the life of light source and power. For testing the life of light source, ENELTEC technicians recommend the promotion of LM80 test. If the LED lamp beads manufacturers all have LM80 report, then the testing agencies only need to test the temperature of the fixture pad during normal operation to draw the light decay curve. Detection institute don’t need to light the lamp to test its life, which is so time-consuming and costly. However, there is no accepted test methods for the life of power.
It is said people can determine the lamp life, according to its light attenuation curve. The technician from Shanxi Guangyu lighting, however, took another view. She said that in actual outdoor lighting conditions, different LED street lights’ attenuation did not show a regularity. Also, different types of lamps has different light decay curves. Forecasting lamp life based on simple light decay curve, the reliability and confidence is quite low. And, light sealing design, selection of the sealing material, selection of the optical protective materials, will have a direct impact on the reliability of the lamp and the light decay. Although the power is most easily damaged parts, but by rational supply chamber thermal design and increased lightning surge protector can greatly improve lighting reliability.
The industry believes that 50,000 hours is the theoretical life of lamp, it’s the equivalent of lighting 10 hours a day, of continuous use for 13.7 years. It’s only 10 years from the introduction of LED lights up to now, there are no LED lights whose life are over 50,000 hours. Each enterprise has its own technical characteristics and standards. Technically speaking, the problem is too specialized for the purchaser, the best way is to have a qualified professional third party testing organization for sampling.