Taiwan to Draft Standards for LED Lamps in Two Years

With the development of LED lighting being taken for granted as a key route along the global trend to build more green lighting solutions, the Taiwan authorities, to show its seriousness to both upgrade and standardize codes for LED streetlighting, plans to draft a uniform set of standards for such public lighting within two years beginning 2007, as well as incorporating it into the Chinese National Standard, while the government keeps an eye on the LED-lighting sector on the island, according to S.B. Huang, a verification manager at the opto-electronics device and system application division of Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories under the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

"To smooth the way to LED streetlighting code standardization, the government will help manufacturers study and compare existing codes as well as do product tests and verifications," Huang states in a study. In June last year, seven local manufacturers of various LED lighting products formed an alliance, under the coordination of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), to push the establishment of measurement standards and quality-improvement solutions for LED products ranging from chips and component modules to light-source systems and application products.

The alliance plans to develop quality-inspection technologies for 100 lumen-watt LED T-Bar lighting system, LED downlights, and LED streetlights that boast average lifespan up to 20,000 hours; the alliance is open to more peers coming onboard to join the standards-setting work.

In the meantime, the lab will work with ITRI's Center for Measurement Standards and Energy and Environment Research Laboratories, as well as LED manufacturers to push to amend 28 LED-related national standards.

World-class Standard a Prerequisite

Economics Minister Steve Chen points out that whether Taiwan's LED lighting products can "rise to the international stage" will depend on the nation to effectively set up a world-class verification standard. "So, as the United States and Japan compete to draft industrial standards for LED products in a bid to spearhead formatting LED lighting, the government in Taiwan is also aggressively helping its own LED manufacturers do the same," he says. After all, the one who first sets world-accepted standards would do so to its own favor, drafting codes to suit its existing technologies and trends. The alliance is the first step to set standards and will push to establish LED verification mechanisms, according to the minister.

Huang stresses that, impressed by the energy-efficiency of LED lamps developed over the past two years or so, the Taiwan government, industrial associations and manufacturers have been eagerly discussing the enactment of uniform standards for LED lighting products, which they believe will soon generate explosive business opportunities. "Such standards are mostly urgently needed for lamps to be used in public-work projects. A recent revision authorizes CNS to approve LED lamps for emergency and exit lights. But the revised rules, I believe, would not motivate greater use of LED lamps since energy-efficiency is not mentioned nor are incentives to encourage their usage," he states in the paper.

Currently, CNS codes and other standards in Taiwan regulate 34 LED items under six major categories: LEDs for indicator systems, LEDs for outdoor billboards, LEDs for communications equipment, infra-red LEDs for automated systems, LED chips and packaged LEDs, and LEDs for traffic lights.

LED Lights on the Rise

Recent years has seen in Taiwan LEDs replacing incandescent lamps as major traffic light sources; while in 2001, Taiwan enacted standards for functionality and reliability tests of LED backlighting modules for traffic lights shortly after it had done the same for traffic signs on streets, for vehicles, and pedestrians. No new standards for LED traffic signs have been introduced until early 2007, when an update made obsolete nine standards.

According to Huang, LED traffic light standards in Taiwan do significant duty to promote energy-conservation: The Ministry estimates that LED traffic lights can save up to 85% of electricity as compared with incandescent counterparts.

China Also Going LED

Mainland China also launched a national program in 2003 to develop crucial LED technologies, LED application products and industrial standards. Two years later, the mainland's Ministry of Science and Technology established an organization to develop standards for LED chips, LED packaging and LED application products. Now, the mainland authorities are actively enacting standards for solar LED streetlights and plan to complete the work in April this year.

Mainland China harbors a huge market for LED streetlights. Worldwide, there are an estimated 120-130 million streetlights in service, with China alone accounting for the top-notch 15 million systems, according to online clearinghouse LEDinside.

Promoting LED light usage in China is more than being green-conscious or politically-correct, for saving power via switching to LED streetlights in the most-populous nation is an effective way to overcome its wide-spread blackouts.

Industrially advanced countries as the United States and Japan have made enacting standards for LED lighting a pivotal task for their LED sectors. The U.S. government-owned National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has begun studying testing approaches for LED lamps to prepare to set up testing methodologies and standards for the American LED lighting sector.

The Japan Lighting Information Services (JLIS) has played a part in setting standards in 2004 for white LED lamps.

Russia and South Korea have also jumped on the bandwagon of developing LED-lighting standards.

Measurement technologies and standards regulating traditional light sources have since 2000 become inadequate as white LED technologies evolve from low to high levels in terms of power specifications, materials, packaging structures and process.

LEDs Differ Drastically

LEDs differ drastically from traditional light sources in terms of illumination patterns, thermal-emission characteristics, and power consumption, hence rendering useless measurement standards applicable to traditional light sources in the case of LED lighting.

The absence of LED lighting standards has aroused complaints from lighting manufacturers regarding inconsistent, unregulated measurement values for lamps, modules and devices supplied with LED lighting fixtures. Such scenario confuses both LED and lighting makers as well as consumers when choosing suitable products, as well as compromising local suppliers' ability to compete globally, so LED and lighting manufacturers are eager to set up uniform standards.