LED Lights for Commercial Pools

This emerging technology (ET) project focuses on developing minimum performance criteria for light-emitting diode (LED) pool lights. The project falls under the ET Technology Development Support (TDS) subprogram. It uses a previous LED pool lighting project findings, as confirmation that the technology application is viable and demonstrates energy savings. However, to ensure correct deployment and realize claimed benefits, customers need guidelines. ENERGY STAR® or Design Lights Consortium (DLC) sets the minimum criteria for any LED technology application. However, because these two resources provide no criteria for LED pool lighting, Southern California Edison initiated this study. The objective of this study is to develop a set of minimum criteria for LED pool lighting using prevailing conditions found in a typical commercial pool. The project measures and analyzes the following parameters to develop the criteria. -Amount of visible light output emitted by the LED fixture -Zonal lumen density, or the percentage of light emitted within a certain degree -Luminaire efficacy  Correlated color temperature (CCT) -Color rendering index (CRI) LED pool lights are designed to operate under water with water as the heat sink. The ET10SCE1130 study revealed the average temperature of pool water to be 80°F. Therefore, a test methodology was created to measure the parameters that simulated the same operating temperature conditions. This was accomplished by submerging the LED lamps under 80°F water, and capturing the internal temperature of the LED pool lights at a stable state. The resulting minimum criteria for LED pool lights display in Table 1. The format follows DLC’s current requirements. The criteria were created using available LED pool lights that met the photometric requirements. Peer review by investor-owned utilities (IOUs), DLC, and industry partners is recommended before LED pool light criteria are finalized, released, and incorporated into an incentive program.