From April 1 to 3, 2019, the annual stakeholder technology summit of 2019 sponsored by DLC was held in St. Louis. MO, and BACL was invited to attend as a sponsor. The grand meeting of lighting industry gathering nearly 300 LED lighting industry giants from all over the world. At the meeting, the latest DLC technical regulations and requirements are shared and the future development trend of the LED lighting industry is discussed. The purpose of the conference was to speed up the establishment of the lighting industry technology network and promote the entry of high-quality LED lighting products into the North American market. During the meeting, BACL technical experts research and discuss deeply with DLC, D+R International, IESNA, CREE, OSRAM, PHILIP, Acuity Brands and other professionals on Flicker, Glare, SPD Data, plant growth horticultural lamp, NLC and other technical hotspots of LED lighting products in order to solve together the controllability, comfort, sustainable energy saving and promote QPL as lighting decision makers to maximize the energy-saving potential of LED lighting in commercial buildings. BACL, as a North American lighting testing and certification expert, has a unique and forward-looking international perspective, and has reached a deep strategic cooperation intention with a number of lighting manufacturers. In the future, we will continue to provide the best testing and certification services, and provide a strong guarantee for the healthy development of the LED lighting industry!

A wonderful moment of the meeting:

About DLC 2019 Stakeholder Meeting：

The annual DLC stakeholder meeting is a platform for building technology networks in the lighting industry and providing opportunities for learning and cooperation, aiming at introducing high-quality LED technology into the global market.

The participants included:

Gabe Arnold Technical Director

Axel Pearson Technical Manager

Ute Besenecker Technical Manager

Damon Bosetti Technical Manager

Wonderful content of the meeting:

Topics of the 2019 DLC Stakeholder Conference：

Topic 1：

IES File Generation (Generation of IES Files Corresponding to LM-79 Optical Distribution Test Data)

★ IES files can be provided

★ Unified tools for analysis and Application

★ Tested vs Modified needs to be clearly identified

Topic 2：

QPL Metric Generation (Generation of Technical Parameters in QPL Table of BUG Beam/field Angles, UGR, DLC. Software tools, for example：DULAX)

★ IES documents need to be issued by accredited laboratories

★ The declared values of technical parameters need to be considered being listed in the QPL table

Topic 3：

Preventing Metrics Misapplication of QPL

★ Report the correct parameters

★ BUG rating, UGR data

★ Lack of training glare

Topic 4：

Allowance for low-glare products

★ It is agreed that relaxation of requirements is necessary for low glare products.

★ DLC needs to understand and use data analysis better to establish Allowance rules

★ Recommend understanding and analyzing together with manufacturers of parts, lenses and lamps

★ Premium certification shall have the priority to be appointed

Contents of the meeting:

DLC requirements for glare:

Naomi Miller, a PNNL technology specialist invited by DLC, explained the principles and calculation formulas of Unified Glare Rating (UGR), Backlight, Uplight and Glare (BUG). In the future, DLC will also research and share the data of glare, flicker, Spectral data SPD, light distribution, color quality requirements in detail and introduce technical requirements of DLC V5.0. Considering that UGR is widely used in Europe and less used in North American lighting system, DLC will increase training and guidance for glare UGR in the future.

UGR = 8log(0.25/Lb)∑（（L2*ω）/P2）

★ Luminance of each luminaire (L) cd/m2

★ Background luminance(Lb) cd/m2

★ Observer's position in relation to the lights

★ The formula produces a value between 5 and 30

Damon Bosetti, Technical Manager of DLC, held a special technical meeting on LED Horticultural Lighting Products V1.1 of DLC.

For LM-80 reporting requirements, drive ISTMT, fan life, for PFMP (400-700 nm), each LED type present in the fixture that has at least 25% of its per-device flux in the PPF range must independently meet the Q90 ≥ 36,000 hours requirement, as shown by a TM-21 calculation. If LED lamps contain multiple types of beads, as long as the total number of beads of any kind is ≥PPF value of the total lamps* 25% (which can be claimed by customers), then Q90 of this lamp bead was required≥36,000 hours and analysis of temperature, humidity, luminosity, water, carbon dioxide, nutrient level EC, etc. in combination with plant growth environment conditions is required.

Comparing DLC's requirements of flicker with other regulations:

Flicker requirements have become one of the more and more important technical indicators of lighting products. At present, Luminaires V2.1 of Energystar requires testing and judging Pst, SVM, Percent Flicker and Flicker index, while Energystar Lamp V2.1 requires testing and reporting Pst, SVM, Mp, Percent Flicker and Flicker index, as well as JA8/JA10 of CEC TITLE 24 in California, USA has Percent Flicker technical requirements.

Currently reference standards for measurement of Flicker includes: IEEE Std 1789TM-2015,NEMA 77-2017 ;ASSIST Metric for Assessing the Direct Perception of Light Source Flicker; ENERGY STAR Recommended Practice–Light Source Flicker.

DLC Network Lighting Control System (NLC) Technical Requirements V4.0:

In the DLC technical meeting, the NLC V4.0 was discussed, IEC 62443 industrial control network and system information security standards were discussed prominently. At the same time, the following three aspects were discussed:

★ Cyber security: The aim is to promote the development and application of better network security.

★ Energy Monitoring: Lighting energy consumption data monitoring is required to be the function of product system.

★ Interoperability: Interoperability between different systems.

SPD Data Transfer:

DLC requires the submission of spectral power distribution data SPD for each nanometer, providing 380-780 nm, and testing data report for each nanometer. Spreadsheet (e.g. * xlsx), IES TM-27-14 (*. spdx), IES TM-33-18 (*. ies), several new standards introduced by DLC: ANSI C78.377-2017, ANSI/IES TM-30-18 to improve optical quality requirements were mentioned in the meeting.

Future planning of 2019 DLC:

In the future, DLC will discuss and update the technical items such as DLC Premium, Reference Housings, Platform Qualification, Product Information Sheet, Dark Sky Friendly Luminaires, Non-Standard Form Factors DLC high-end products, Reference Housing (Because the current LED lamps are not using traditional lamp housing, in the future DLC will revise the requirements of reference test lamp housing), the platform QPL confirmation, QPL product information table, the dark sky lamps (lamps that meet the requirements of the dark sky but can not provide good optical control will not guide light to the place where it is needed, it will waste energy and produce unnecessary light overflow, such as light intrusion and sky luminescence), non-standard shape factors, etc.

Reference Housings：

★ Current lamp and refurbishment kits require testing in traditional lamp housing

★ Traditional lamp housing is difficult to obtain

★ Increased costs of testing, auditing, and market regulation

★ DLC is considering eliminating the necessary to refer to traditional lamp shells for certain product categories

Non-standard form factors：

★ It is possible for LED lamps to have new shapes, but outside the current range of DLC products Categories.

★ In the future, we will consider adding innovative product types to DLC certification categories.

★ DLC Encourages Innovation

DLC premium certificate：

At present, DLC premium certificate includes

★ High light efficiency (usually 15%)

★ Better Lumen Maintenance Rate (L90 > 50 000 Hours)

★ ISTMT testing through driven

★ Since the improvement of the above parameters may be at the expense of optical quality performance, in the future DLC will consider adding optical quality parameters to the premium certificate.

DLC certified products in Utility Program Rebate:

Summary and comparison of DLC certified products applied for Utility Program in the major states of the United States, such as the high proportion of return points and specific distribution of 2x4 Troffer, outdoor rod lamps, high Bay lamps, as well as summary and comparison of the specific amount of return points, such as: for High Bay lamps return points of $40-194 between continents.

Other directions of DLC in the future:

★ Adding specific implementation plans in DRAFT 2 of DLC SSL Technical Requirements V5.0

★ Pertinent research, training and promotion

For more information on DLC 2019 Stakeholder Meeting, DLC SSL V5.0, LED Horticultural Lighting Products V1.1 and NLC V4.0, please feel free to contact our technical experts!

BACL Service：

BACL is the first Chinese laboratory who introduces US Energy Star into China and also is a sampling and testing laboratory of CB certification body approved by the EPA. At the same time we obtain the authorization and recognition of NVLAP, IAS, CNAS and A2LA, and so on. Respectively have testing sites in US, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Kunshan, such places. With the ability to complete the energy efficiency aging detection of 60,000 lights at the same time, BACL is the largest and most authoritative energy efficiency testing laboratory in China.

We can provide you with many services, such as US Energy Star, DLC, DOE, CEC Title20, CEC Title24, LDL, FTC Label, European Union ERP, Canada NRCan, UK EST, Australia GEMS/VEET/IPART, global Energy efficiency Label ELI and Hong Kong Energy Label inspection and certification.