About Reflector CFLs
installed in the Heron Model Home
at the Street of New Beginnings,
June 19-July 11, 2004
Recessed downlights are among today's most popular lighting fixtures with an estimated 350 million installed in U.S. homes. The vast majority of these fixtures are fitted with incandescent reflector lamps (R-lamps) typically drawing 65 to 100 watts of power per lamp. An estimated 120 to 140 million R-lamps are sold in the United States each year. Roughly half of these are for residential use. Why are they so popular? Recessed "cans" are relatively inexpensive compared to other types of installed lighting fixtures for the home, and they provide an unobtrusive, directed source of light for kitchens, hallways, and living rooms.
Many incandescent R-lamps can be replaced with reflector CFLs (R-CFLs), which provide similar light output while using just one-third the energy. In non-airtight cans, screw-in CFLs can replace incandescent lamps for immediate energy savings. However, much of the light from a standard CFL will be lost inside the recessed fixture. Reflector lamps address this problem, but there are currently few R-CFLs available in consumer markets. Further, when higher wattage R-CFLs are used in an insulated ceiling rated airtight (ICAT) recessed can, an additional challenge arises: heat generated by the lamp and ballast can be trapped inside the fixture, and excessive heat can cause lower light output and a shorter life span.
To address the heat challenge, this procurement seeks R-CFLs that are specifically designed for use in ICAT recessed can fixtures, plus meet other minimum performance criteria including minimum light output and size restrictions (to ensure they fit in standard residential recessed cans). A parallel effort currently underway seeks high performance recessed CFL downlights for residential applications.
Commercial buildings, such as restaurants, hotels and multifamily housing facilities, are also sometimes equipped with recessed can fixtures. Apartment buildings and hotels, for example, often use recessed cans in common areas, many of which remain lit for extended hours. Energy use in these applications could be reduced significantly by using R-CFLs versus incandescent reflectors. While the project focused on developing R-CFLs for ICAT cans, the Philips models selected will perform equally well in non-ICAT cans, tracks or even wall-mounted floods. ICAT cans are generally required on the uppermost floor of a building with gypsum wall board ceilings in contact with insulation, so they are more commonly found in residential versus commercial buildings. They are not, however, recommended for spotlight applications where a narrow, directed beam is required.