Dear Reader:

Here’s a shocker: the Rated Life of an LED is not necessarily the same as the manufacturer’s warranty.

In addition to Lumen Maintenance and Rated Life metrics, the lighting system buyer should fully understand what the warranty covers – and to what specific point in a fixture’s life the warranty is in effect.

Some warranties are expressed in terms of time, for example, 5 or 10 years; others are expressed in terms of hours of operation, perhaps 50,000 or 100,000 hours.

Equating one to the other for warranty purposes is critical, as a 24/7 operation will get to 100,000 hours of burn time more quickly than an operation with a single shift. On the other hand, a warranty expressed in time (5 or 10 years) is the same for either type of business conditions.

Most manufacturer’s warranties cover product only – not the labor required to change a fixture out in the event of a claim. Whil...