COMPARISONS WITH EXISTING TECHNOLOGY

LightLab's technology for general lighting brings many advantages compared with existing lighting alternatives.

• Completely mercury free , unlike conventional low-energy lamps
• Low manufacturing costs compared with low-energy lamps
• Consumes less energy than normal incandescent lamps and most low-energy lamps
• Functions with normal constantly variable light adjustment (dimmer)
• Instant on, lights without delay
• Works well at low temperatures (normal low-energy lamps work less well in the cold)
• Better colour reproduction than with most low-energy and LCD lamps
• Long lifetime compared with most low-energy lamps

As early as 2009, LightLab could demonstrate an energy efficiency of 85 lm/W, excluding drive electronics. Energy efficiency is still one of the most important technical key figures for the company, which is still striving to improve it even further. Shown below is data from the test programme (CALiPER) used by the US Department of Energy (DoE) to test and compare different Solid State Lighting (SSL or LED) lamps. LightLab's technology stands up very well to this comparison.

According to the same reference, LED lamps have a potential lifetime of up to 50,000 hours in favourable operating conditions. LightLab's long-term objective is to reach these lifetimes with its own products. From a marketing perspective however, lifetime is of lessening importance and purchase price weighs more heavily with the consumer, which gives LightLab's products a clear competitive advantage over lamps with LED technology.

The table at the bottom of the page gives a more detailed comparison between various different lamps.

OLED is a technology under development. LightLab is following this development, but existing data is sparse and uncertain, which means that at the moment a direct comparison is not relevant.

CALiPER annual results

Average energy efficiency for LED (lm/W) 

Measured energy efficiency for a number of commercially available LED lamps of various designs Vertical yellow lines show the area  from best to worst measurement result of energy efficiency

Source: DOE Solid-State Lighting CALiPER Program, ”Summary of Results:Round 13 of Product Testing”, Prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy, by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory October 2011. ( http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/publications/pdfs/ssl/caliper_round13_summary.pdf )

Comparison with competing technology

(*) LED lamps MR16 with 90lm/W exist, but they have low intensity and should not be compared with 20W Halogen. It is normal for LED lamps with high intensity to have a shorter lifetime.

(**) Under assessment; see table on next page All data for competing light sources has been published and is taken from US Department of Energy (DoE) Solid State Lighting M16 refers to lamps of spotlight format and T8has the shape of a traditional fluorescent tube