Effects of the aging time on CFL and LED lamps: experimental tests on the electrical and photometric quantities

For a decade to now, lighting with LED lamp technology has rapidly established itself in the market, both for domestic use and for industrial use, becoming in fact a viable alternative to fluorescent lamp technology. Industrial research interests focus on this LED lamp technology, which is steadily in development, presenting continuous improvements and considerable advantages compared to the fluorescent lamps. It should be noted that both technologies introduce a high harmonic content in the power supply network, and therefore represent a non-linear load for the mains. The present work aims to analyze and study the electrical and photometric characteristics of the two technologies. For this purpose eight lamp types, four CFL and four LED lamps are tested, through laboratory measurements and detailed analyses. The photometric and electrical quantities of the lamps are then detected, and subsequently the variations undergone by these quantities with the aging of the lamps are verified and discussed. The measurements of the photometric quantities are performed according to the EN 13032-1: 2004 standard, and the tests on the electrical quantities aim to evaluate the harmonic content, and check if it meets the IEC 61000-3-2 standard.