DLC – A Contractor’s Guide

Lumight.comTOPIC: CONTRACTOR’S GUIDE TO

THE DLC

• DesignLights Consortium’s (DLC) is something electrical contractors, maintenance people, and end-users hear on a daily basis. It is a certification or endorsement today’s specifiers and end-users demand their lighting products adhere to. Not only because these products have independent third-party verification of specifications but because they are usually needed to secure Lighting Rebates (Link) from various sources.

• Lighting product rebates offered by utilities and other organizations typically require that the product satisfy some sort of performance criteria. Testing and verification ensures that the given product performs similarly to the technology it is replacing while producing good energy savings. Often independent third party verification of data is desired. This is the function DLC serves.

• For solid-state lighting products like LED, rebate administrators generally rely on two quality seals of approval: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR and the DesignLights Consortium’s (DLC) Qualified Products List. According to BriteSwitch, 94% of lighting product rebate programs require that screwbase LED replacement lamps be listed with ENERGY STAR.

• • With its primary focus on consumer lighting, ENERGY STAR

does not cover many industrial/commercial product categories, however. Enter the Qualified Products List maintained by the DLC, a project of regional non-profit Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP), an organization of utilities.

• The Qualified Products List provides a resource for member utilities to recognize products for their incentive programs that are tested and verified as being high-quality. Not only do many utilities within the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions rely on the Qualified Products List to recognize products but now this practice has spread across the country and even around the world.

• As of April 2016, more than 150,000 products were listed in the Qualified Products List database, which is available online as a searchable tool. Product categories range from linear indoor and high-bay luminaires to outdoor area lighting. For example, 55 Lumight outdoor luminaires are listed.

What’s in it for electrical contractors and other lighting professionals? Along with ENERGY STAR, the Qualified Products List provides a list of LED luminaires and lamps that qualify for many rebate programs. For all projects, it generally provides a list of products that satisfy stringent performance criteria.

Contractors that use products from this list gain a degree of assurance the products are high-quality and will perform as expected after installation. More importantly, contractors that recommend product from this list to their clients gain the confidence of their customers and will likely secure more jobs.

Click here to visit the Qualified Products List online.

DLC product categories and number of products listed in each category as of April 2016.

Categories Total Outdoor Luminaires - Low Output 17857 Outdoor Luminaires - Mid Output 23283 Outdoor Luminaires - High Output 26643 Indoor Luminaires - Interior Directional 1183 Indoor Luminaires - Display Case 3279 Indoor Luminaires - Troffer 26116 Indoor Luminaires - High-Bay 23769 Outdoor Retrofit Kit - Low Output 720 Outdoor Retrofit Kit - Mid Output 1415 Outdoor Retrofit Kit - High Output 1887 Indoor Retrofit Kit - Linear Ambient 157 Indoor Retrofit Kit - High-Bay 348 Indoor Luminaires - Linear Ambient 12387 Indoor Retrofit Kit - Troffer 2514 Linear Replacement Lamp - Four-Foot 8284 Linear Replacement Lamp - Two-Foot 2109 Mogul (E39) Screw-Base Replacements for HID Lamps - Low Output 942 Mogul (E39) Screw-Base Replacements for HID Lamps - Mid Output 530 Mogul (E39) Screw-Base Replacements for HID Lamps - High Output 88 Mogul (E39) Screw-Base Replacements for HID Lamps - High-Bay 323

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