The LED luminaire must meet or exceed the lighting requirements for the target application. Therefore, the lighting requirements must be defined before establishing the design goals. For some applications, there are existing lighting standards that will define the requirements directly. For other applications, a good approach is to characterise an existing luminaire.
Table 2 (below) lists important characteristics to consider when characterising an existing luminaire. The light output and power characteristics are always critical, while other characteristics may or may not be important, depending on the application.
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Table 2 - Important Characteristics of Target Luminaire
All lighting companies can provide data files or documentation that detail the “critical” characteristics for each of their fixtures. The “potentially important” characteristics are more subjective or may not be listed in the manufacturer’s documentation. In this case, it is up to the designer to characterise the existing luminaire.
Figure 1 illustrates the critical characteristics for the example CFL downlight.
Table 3 - Example CFL Downlight Characterisation.