What are DLC listed LED Grow Lights? And why does it matter?

LED lighting for controlled environment agriculture (CEA) continues to mature as new standards and regulations are implemented across the industry. And the emergence of the Design Lights Consortium (DLC) horticulture lighting program is an important step forward.

Design Lights Consortium is a non-profit organization with a mission of advancing the adoption of energy efficient lighting. The organization historically focused on general lighting applications such as retail lighting and street lighting. But very recently DLC started accepting submissions of LED grow lights for qualification testing and inclusion in its Horticulture Lighting Qualified Products List (QPL).

For growers, buying DLC listed products provides peace-of-mind that the lights meet rigorous performance, safety and reliability standards. Further, utilities are likely to begin mandating DLC listed lights in order to qualify for energy efficiency rebates.

A few of the critical performance and reliability requirements to achieve DLC listing include:

• Efficacy > 1.9 umol/J between 400-700nm
• Long-term performance: Q90 > 36,000 hours photon flux maintenance
• Driver Lifetime: > 50,000 hours
• Warranty: > 5 years

In addition to performance and reliability, DLC requires products to be certified by a relevant safety certification body in the United States or Canada. 

Underwriter’s Laboratories (UL), for example, has defined UL 8800 for the review and safety certification of horticulture lighting products.

Light on technology has its LED grow light fixtures(model S4 , model F3 ) qualified by DLC lights listed. To learn more about DLC, visit: www.designlights.org.