Integral has announced the introduction of a new backlit LED panel achieving 152lm/W output. Over the last few decades, these LED luminaires changed the way our commercial spaces look.
Integral has announced the introduction of a new backlit LED panel achieving 152lm/W output. John Bullock considers the implications.
The LED panel has become the go-to fixture for general illumination in commercial spaces. Generally speaking, these LED luminaires provide a more comfortable ambience than some of the fluorescent horrors we’ve experienced over the last few decades. As a consequence, they’ve changed the way our commercial spaces look.
Two trends are being watched carefully. On the one hand, lumen output of the panels is driving ever higher. At the same time, the unit cost of panels is going the other way, with some panels being offered at embarrassingly low prices.
Let’s look at the cost first. We are all aware of ridiculously low prices on LED panels available on the internet. The guidance on buying any type of LED luminaire stands: a lighting supplier with a decent reputation to maintain will be able to provide full, certified, photometric performance data of its fixtures. Cheap lighting fixtures are cheap for a reason.
So where are we going with lumen output figures? While 200lm/W has long been a ‘grail’ number for the LED industry, we’re not there yet. Some would say that’s a good thing, but there is an argument in its favour, as discussed below. Meanwhile, the arrival of the 152lm/W LED light panel from Integral is to be welcomed, and it comes with an important development in LED panel technology.
Issues with edge-lighting
The first LED panels used edge-lighting. LED strips arranged around the inner face of the mounting frame of the fixture project light into the diffuser panel, which is then refracted downwards into the space. It’s an inefficient way to get light out of a fixture, but it’s a very cost-effective fixture to manufacture and transport. Further, having the LEDs within the depth of the frame means a very slim fixture, certainly slim enough to fit within the depth of plasterboard in a ceiling. And that can be a very attractive option for installers.
But it’s the technology within an edge-lit LED panel that has allowed prices to tumble. The unscrupulous panel manufacturer simply buys reels of cheap LED strip, mounts the strip into the frame and fits the diffuser. It’s this process that has made the LED panel market torturously competitive. Despite some fixtures coming without guarantees of build quality or performance, buyers are still very keen to purchase. The regret comes later.
Benefits of backlighting
Backlit LED panels are always more efficient than their edge-lit counterparts. Whereas the light created by the LED chips in an edge-lit fixture has to travel through the entire volume of the diffusing panel, the light from the matrix of LED chips in a backlit panel only travels through the thickness of the diffuser material – a matter of a few millimetres. Light losses within the fixture are lower, meaning a higher delivered lumen output.
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