New Regulations for PAR and R Lamps
PAR and R Lamps Update:
On July 14th, 2012 there will be new regulations regarding PAR and R lamps. The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act required the U.S. Department of Energy to review the performance of these lamps periodically, thus developing changes in how this category of lamps is regulated. The affected lamps are referred to as “IRLs”, or incandescent reflector lamps, which have a screw base and use standard incandescent or halogen-incandescent technology. The regulations will apply to all these lamps between the range of 40 watts to 250 watts, however there are exemptions within this range. The most commonly used lamps being affected are the PAR30, PAR38, PAR20, R20, BR30, ER30, BR40 and ER40.The requirements are based off of a formula to calculate the lamp’s efficacy, depending on size and wattage. On average, the new calculated efficacies required of the PAR, R, and BR lamps will result in the lamps being 20% more efficacious.
For example, a 60 watt PAR38 lamp will be required to achieve an efficacy of 17.8 lumens per watt, which is approximately a 25% increase from prior standards. PAR38 lamps already use a halogen design, so this means an even better technology will have to be used to achieve this new efficacy. One technology that can be used to do this is known as HIR technology, or halogen infrared reflecting film. It keeps the heat inside the lamp’s filament tube by using layers of infrared-reflecting films applied to the surface of the filament tube. It is more costly to make, but this technology can be applied to many types of lamps to decrease energy consumption while maintaining other important lamp characteristics. There are versions currently available in some PAR and MR16 lamps.
There are also LED lamps that can replace many of these types of lamps. LED technology uses a significantly lower amount of energy, making these lamps much more efficacious. Check out some of the LED lamps available on www.greenlightingresource.com.
All lamps that have already been manufactured may still be sold, but non-qualifying lamps cannot be manufactured or imported after the July 14th, 2012 cut-off date. Similar regulations will become effective for other types of lamps such as T8 and T12 fluorescent lamps in 2-foot and 4-foot sizes. This will take place in November. For more information on new regulations in the lighting industry, contact us at info@luxld.com or go to http://www.americanlightingassoc.com/.
