Give your LED products a trusted stamp of approval
With the significant surge in the production of LED lighting over the past few years, many companies choose to market their products around energy and life. This means the market is flooded with products that are not necessarily meeting quality and safety standards, with no real differentiator to distinguish between brands and outputs.
In 2009 the EU announced that all incandescent light bulbs should be phased out, with halogen bulbs to follow by 2016. As a result, many organisations are now investing in large-scale LED projects as these are more energy efficient than their traditional counterparts.
This has led to a huge increase in the manufacturing of LED products and in order to create some form of differentiation, companies tend to produce their own performance test reports. However, these test reports are not validated by third parties and value claims are often misleading or unclear. With over 45% of manufacturers being carried out abroad, this is a growing concern.
Currently there are no schemes to help customers and consumers make informed decisions about the safety and performance of LED products. And with a few reported cases of electric shock due to faulty construction or overheating, the safety of several lighting products has been questioned.
BSI Kitemark™ Scheme for self-ballasted LED lamps
We have over 50 years' of experience in independent and impartial testing and certification of lighting products. This particular Kitemark™ scheme is designed to help manufacturers and suppliers demonstrate the safety of their self-ballasted LED lamps, and verify all their performance claims. As a result, they will be able to differentiate themselves from the competition with an independent, third party stamp of quality, safety and performance.
This Kitemark™ scheme is more robust than most other certification programmes on the market and quality assurance can be completed in a much quicker turnaround time without the need for partial approval. This means less of a delay for our clients to get their Kitemark™ certificate.
Once the Kitemark™ Certificate has been issues, we will carry out repeat visits at least twice a year to ensure products still conform to all the necessary requirements.
Who can benefit from the scheme?
The BSI Kitemark™ scheme for self-ballasted LED lamps can benefit all LED manufacturers, suppliers and distributors, as well as those who brought the above – mentioned standards. It can also act as a useful customer insight tool and be deployed to aid market research.
The benefits
The scheme helps you to differentiate your business from competitors in a saturated market by having your performance, safety and quality claims verified by a trusted third party – BSI. The scheme is also recognised on a global level, so all your products will therefore carry an internationally verified mark. This could help you get access to other markets abroad and give your customers extra piece of mind.
Standards the scheme covers
BS EN 62560:2012 – Self-ballasted LED-lamps for general lighting services by voltage > 50 V. Particular focus will be placed on safety specifications and all products will be tested at our laboratory in Loughborough
BS EN 62612:2013 – Self-ballasted LED lamps for general lighting services with supply voltages > 50 V. The emphasis here is performance requirements.
