The Department of Energy published a report summarizing 12 lessons learned about solid-state lighting (SSL) and LED market development thus far:
Lesson 1: Rigorous testing requirements adopted in the early days of SSL industry development were necessary to counter exaggerated claims of performance by some manufacturers, but they eventually led to unreasonably high testing costs.
Lesson 2: Despite the promise of long life, there is no standard way to rate the lifetime and reliability of LED products.
Lesson 3: Specifiers prefer complete families of products, but the rapid evolution of LED technology presents a challenge to manufacturers in creating and maintaining complete product lines.
Lesson 4: The range of color quality available with LED-based products and the limitations of existing color metrics may confuse users.
Lesson 5: The color delivered by some LEDs shifts over time, enough to negatively impact adoption in some applications.
Lesson 6: Some LEDs flicker noticeably, which may negatively impact adoption in some applications.
Lesson 7: LEDs can cause glare, which may negatively impact adoption in some applications.
Lesson 8: Achieving high-quality dimming performance with LED lamps is difficult, but improving.
Lesson 9: Greater interoperability of lighting control components and more sensible specifications of lighting control systems are required to maximize the energy savings delivered by LED-based sources.
Lesson 10: Lack of LED product serviceability and interchangeability has created market adoption barriers in certain sectors.
Lesson 11: Existing lighting infrastructure limits the full potential of SSL; more effort is needed to open the doors to new lighting systems and form factors.
Lesson 12: Programs that provide ways to identify quality LED products have helped support market adoption.