Understanding lighting product certification is a critical part in helping you ensure you choose a quality product for your next lighting project. Things like: DLC, Energy Star and ETL are just a few but very important certifications. You might be wondering what this terminology means and how it relates to your lighting project. Today, we will look at some of the more popular certification like: Energy Star, UL, ETL and DLC. At a high level these designations are mostly about safety and energy efficiency. However, we will dive into the particulars of each certification more below.

UL is a destination that signifies that an electrical product has passed Underwriter Laboratories safety requirements for use by consumers and commercial users. Similar to the UL listing, ETL is another electrical safety certification. ETL tests products to the same safety standards as UL. An ETL designation signifies that a product’s is safe to use for the public. Achieving a ETL certification seems to be a smoother process than achieving a UL listing, even though UL and ETL have an identical testing procedure. The primary goal for the UL and ETL certification is ensuring that an electrical product will not end up malfunctioning and causing a fire in the facility. These certifications are almost universally required for all commercial building code to ensure that the public remains safe while using these products.

DLC stands for DesignLights Consortium. If an Led Lighting Product has received this designation what this really means is that the product meets minimum performance requirements. Utilities and Rebate Managers will often use this designation to determine if a product qualifies for available rebates. As a purchaser, the DLC certification allows for some degree of certainty that you are purchasing a high quality electrical product. The organization does an excellent job of vetting the product before the certification is given. This helps to eliminate the due diligence that you would need to complete personally, if this certification hadn’t been given.

Unlike some of the other certifications that we’ve talked about that were more geared to commercial lighting products. The Energy Star certification is more targeted as opposed to LED fixtures, retrofits, or linear tubes. In addition, Energy Star is passed out by the Environmental Protection Agency, a division of the US Government. An Energy Star label tells you that the product is going to save you money on energy when compared to the more conventional, non energy-efficient products.

In conclusion understanding the certifications and listings available for lighting and electrical products is a vital component of getting the correct product for your facility. If you need help during your next LED Lighting project, contact Action Services Group by calling 610-558-9773, email [email protected], or schedule a call that fits your needs by clicking the button below. We would be more than happy to discuss a lighting retrofit for your organization.