How To Choose LED Lights? What Impacts Pricing Of The Two Similar Lights?

TJ2 Lighting | LED Lighting Manufacturer 東捷生活科技

9 min readMay 16, 2024

本文由 Jason謝易芨 | 共同創辦人/行銷經理 at TJ2 Lighting, led lighting manufacturer, lighting manufacturer and led lighting supplier in Taiwan 撰文分享

When purchasing light fixtures, you may have encountered a situation where two products that look very similar have vastly different prices. This situation often confuses people, not knowing exactly where the differences lie. In fact, the price difference of light fixtures can be attributed to multiple factors, including material quality, manufacturing process, brand awareness, and product design, among others. This article will delve into these factors and explain why even light fixtures with similar appearances still have price differences.

1. LED Chips

A. The Brand And Quality Of LED Chips

LED chips are a crucial part of the quality of light emitted by LED Lights. There are many LED brands on the market. High-quality chips are mainly produced in Europe, America and Japan. The main representative brands are Bridgelux, CREE, LUMINUS, and NICHIA. However, these manufacturers may not use the same materials as other small brands on the market. Famous manufacturers are better and more rigorous in quality control. There is an analogy that foreign LED chips are sold one by one, while the cheaper ones are sold by weight. From this, we can see that the overall difference in quality is huge.

From the perspective of professional manufacturing processes, we could identify the difference between nice quality LED chips and normal ones in the following aspects: for example, good LEDs are welded with red copper brackets and gold wires, while normal ones are welded with iron brackets, alloy wires or aluminum wires and other inferior wires. Another example is phosphor powder, the quality of phosphor powder will influence the wavelength and color produced by the LED. Customers could identify the differences in LED brightness, color rendering index, color temperature, SDCM, and luminous efficiency easily and obviously.

Most of people are confused that the brighter the light, the better the light fixtures. In fact, this is not true. If the harmful blue light in the LED is high, it will cause damage to the eyes. Nice quality LEDs are very particular about brightness and blue lights. They will increase the brightness and avoid the blue lights that are not good for human eyes, thus achieving increased brightness while protecting the eyes. Overall, a nice quality LED Chip is really important for a light fixture and of course, it’s the reason why there is such a difference between the two prices.

B. CRI(Color Rendering Index)

The color rendering index (CRI) is a quantitative metric to measure the colors of various objects faithfully compared to a natural or standard light source. Color rendering, as defined by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE), is the effect of an illuminant on the color appearance of objects compared to their color appearance under a reference or standard illuminant.

Generally, the color rendering index of cheap light fixtures on the market is usually under 80, and the CRI of the lights used in commercial lighting is more than 90, that is why the color of goods or artwork in department stores is completely different from the color in your home. When we use nice quality LED Lights with a color rendering of 90/95 or above, not only will the items look more vivid, but the texture of the entire space will be greatly improved, just like living in a 5-star hotel every day.

How To Choose The Right CRI For Your Lighting?

C. Color Temperature

The color temperature is defined as the ‘temperature of the black body when same color light as that light is radiated by the perfectly black body’ and its unit is K (Kelvin). It shows the relative strength of violet light and red light of a color-emitted light source.

For normal LED lights, the color temperature may be advertised as 3000K, but it may deviate to 3200 or 2800 in fact. Suppose the temperature of the lights is getting higher, the color temperature deviation may be greater. The deviation of a nice quality LED light will maintained in a standard range, so that the overall color temperature will not appear to be different.

Choosing The Right Color Temperature

D. SDCM(Standard Deviation Of Color Matching)

SDCM stands for “Standard Deviation of Color Matching.” SDCM is used to indicate light color deviations and describe the color precision of a light source. In LED lighting, it’s a measure of how much the color of the emitted light can vary within a batch or between different batches of LED products. It’s used to quantify the consistency of color among LEDs. A lower SDCM value indicates tighter color consistency, meaning the light emitted by each LED in a batch will be closer in color to each other. This consistency is crucial in applications where color accuracy is important, such as in photography, retail displays, or architectural lighting.

Normally, the range of color deviation of low-priced LED Lights is huge. Simply put, if the color deviation exceeds the standard, you will see very different light colors at the same color temperature, some will be greener, redder, and bluer. Nice quality LED lights would receive strict QC for color deviation according to the standard.

E. Luminous Efficacy

Luminous Efficacy represents the efficiency of the light source in converting the consumed electrical energy into light, and the higher the value, the higher the conversion efficiency of the light source.

Generally, low-priced light fixtures may advertise to have good luminous efficiency, but you can find that the lighting effect still has differences. This may be due to the following reasons:
-The luminous efficacy of the LED chip is not in good quality, or the power of the LED light is misrepresented (for example, a 15W light fixture may only have 12W)
-The LED chip exceeds the power range that can be used (such as adding 1W LED to 3W), resulting in a very bright start. However, after a short period of use, it is discovered that the LED is experiencing light decay, and the overall luminous efficiency will be significantly reduced.

2. LED Power Supply/Power Adapter

LED power supply is also a very important part of LED lights, and it also affects the lifespan of the light fixtures directly. There are many power supplies on the market. We can mainly divide them into constant current power supplies and constant voltage power supplies. Most of the parts we use in LED lights are constant current.

There are many low-priced power supplies on the market, and the wattage marked on the package is usually misrepresented. Suppose you take the low-priced power supply apart. In that case, you can find the amount of the electronic components inside is much less than a nice quality power supply, and the missed components are precisely important parts.

A nice quality power supply is designed with measures such as inrush current prevention, rectification and filtering, and current stabilization to ensure the safety and stability of the lighting fixtures.

3. Materials Of LED Lights

The materials commonly used in low-priced light fixtures may be aluminum die castings with a lot of impurities, thin aluminum/iron sheets, or even low-cost materials such as plastic. This can lead to poor heat dissipation of the light fixtures. When the heat cannot be released, it will also increase the LED/driver temperature, accelerating the occurrence of light decay and the failure of drivers, resulting in a significant reduction in the lifespan of the light fixtures.

4. Design Of The LED Lights

Nice design light fixtures will consider heat dissipation. How to design a heat sink to effectively and quickly lead heat to the outside of the light fixtures is crucial, so that the LED chip temperature will not be too high, protecting the light fixture and extending its service life.

Generally, low-priced light fixtures are often used as a heat sink with a single board, and it is unknown whether the actual heat has dissipated. Hence, we can know the reason why the light decays so quickly.

5. Lifespan

Many factors affect the product lifespan of lighting fixtures. The LED chips, power supplies, heat dissipation, and product design mentioned above are the main factors that affect the lifespan of light fixtures. Therefore, it can be seen that light fixtures and low-priced lighting fixtures have obvious differences in manufacturing process and materials, leading to significant differences in their lifespan. A nice light fixture can last for about 50000 hours, while low-priced lighting fixtures may only be advertised for 15000 hours.

Overall, the price difference of LED light fixtures may be influenced by a combination of multiple factors. When purchasing light fixtures, customers should carefully consider factors such as material quality, manufacturing process, brand awareness, etc. to ensure that they receive a value-for-money product. Regardless of the price, the most important thing is to choose light fixtures that meet your needs and preferences and ensure that their quality and performance meet your requirements.

More Information:
Top 10 LED Lighting Manufacturers In The World 2023/2024
10 Great Uses For LED Lighting In Interior Design
How To Use LED Lighting In Interior Design For Your Home?
How To Choose The Color Temperature For Kitchen Lighting?
How To Choose The Color Temperature For Bedroom Lighting?

作者: 謝易芨 Jason Hsieh | 共同創辦人/行銷經理 at TJ2 Lighting 東捷生活科技 LED Lighting Manufacturer in Taiwan.

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