WHY LED LIGHTING METRICS ARE INVALID

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LED lighting technology is unlike any other form of conventional lighting we've used in the past as it has unique properties, characteristics and complexities. (The closest equivalent to LED lighting technology is laser.) Unfortunately, the complexity has been widely ignored, and in most cases misunderstood which is why there are so many failed LED retrofits around the world. 

Rather than deliver safe, effective and appropriate illumination that significantly improves upon the older lighting it replaces, LED retrofits have instead caused all sorts of problems. 

Not only has the  technology itself caused challenges, commonly used metrics for conventional lighting cannot be applied to LED. This is due to the fact that current metrics are based on spherical light emitters that emit uniform light known. LEDs are a flat surface emitter that produces high-intenisty light concentrated into a narrow beam that is non-uniform. 

It's taken until 2021, for the lighting industry to finally admite they have made an error, with Cree Lighting being the first and only lighting company yet, to explain that the industry has been using the wrong metrics for LED lighting. Please check their white paper to learn more. 

SPECTRAL POWER DISTRIBUTION (SPD)

The graph on the left above is the spectral power distribution (SPD) of a 4000 K LED street lighting luminaire with the problematic spike in disruptive bluewavelengths of light circlced in a red outline. This kind of light source is complely inappropriate for lighting at night.