Lumen Depreciation Made Simple

Switching to LED lights will ultimately help you save money. But what about lumen loss? Learn more about lumen degradation and how it affects your LED lights.

Lumen loss Made easier

Certainly, light emitting diodes-or LEDs-are an improvement over conventional metal halide or fluorescent lights. Switching to LED lights will help you to save a significant lot of money over time. But what about lumen loss? If this is a strange phrase to you, read on to learn more about lumen depreciation and improve your knowledge of your LED lighting.
 

Lumen depreciation is what?

Though it is widely recognised that LED lights survive far longer than fluorescent or metal halide lights, it's also truth that no light bulb lasts forever. Unlike conventional lights, LEDs don't just abruptly fail and leave you in darkness. Rather, during their lifetime, LEDs slowly release less and less lumens. Let's take a closer look at this...
The "lumens" are the measurements of a light's brightness. More lumens produced equals more brilliant light.
An LED light first installed emits "initial lumens," or the quantity of light generated soon after stabilising but before degradation starts. The LED is at its brightest and highest output then.
The amount of light produced by the LED declines over time. This is known as "depreciation."
A rather straightforward formula allows one to compute lumen depreciation at any moment. Divide the LED's initial lumen output by the LED's lumen output at any point in time, "mean lumens." This equation's outcome will be a decimal. A 0.8 share, for instance, indicates the LED is operating at 80% of its original capacity.

So, when does an LED bulb need replacement or "failure"?

Although there is some controversy on this subject, the usually agreed upon period to replace LED bulbs is when they generate 70% or less of their original lumen output. Also known as L70, this time point is the "lumen maintenance lifetime." An LED light's lifetime is counted in hours. L7o is the amount of hours of light an LED gives before 70% of original output.