Only 50 per cent of LED figures were realistic says UK LDA judge

Three of the judges who assessed the product categories for this year’s Lighting Design Awards said they had misgivings about a large proportion of the figures that were being quoted at them during the manufacturer submissions.

Speaking at the Lighting Design Awards Breakfast Briefing, Colin Ball from BDP, Harry Triggs from manufacturer TM Lighting and Rod Bastable from Bastable Lighting Services said the presence of a doctor of optical physics and a specialist in bonding and thermal engineering on the judging panel gave them the authority to question some of the more outlandish manufacturer lifetime figures.

Triggs said: “I think some of the things that people were stating were grossly inaccurate. Having a couple of doctors on the panel added a level of accuracy and realism. By looking at the way some companies were bonding their LEDs to the chip board, we could see that people weren’t going to be achieving good junction temperatures.