Why doesn’t Solais provide LM-80 results on their lamps? That’s because LM-80 refers to the LED itself, outside of its environment.

We can provide the LM-80 on the individual LEDs used in our lamps. The Illuminating Engineer Society of North America (IESNA) came up with a method of testing LED lumen maintenance called LM-80-08: IES Approved Method for Measuring Lumen Maintenance of LED light Sources. LM80 prescribes uniform testing methods for determining the amount of light output maintained over time (lumen maintenance) for LED packages, arrays or modules (i.e. devices).

A given LED device is operated for at least 6,000 hours (over 8 months: this has a longer life than any standard incandescent or halogen lamp source) at representative operating temperatures. The LED device is not tested within any fixture or replacement lamp, but independent of them. During this time, photometric data is collected at least every 1,000 hours. That data is then compiled into the LM-80 report for the LED device.

This is why thermal management is so important for determining the end-of-life for LED replacement lamps. If the LED operates above the LM-80’s “representative operating temperature”, then the results of the LM-80 test won’t have much correlation to the lamp life.

Solais uses a patent pending Luxiance and Therottle technology to prevent our lamps from operating above the LM-80 testing temperature, guaranteeing that our lamps will reach the expected lamp life while producing higher light output than any other replacement LED lamp on the market.