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. While this may not be a ‘big deal’ to some – although clearly there is a cost involved – imagine the difficulty involved in replacing a fixture at 45’H above a furnace. This can become significant quickly.
And with an eye toward logistics, what if the manufacturer mandates that it inspects the failed fixture before sending a new one? You get the idea.
We recommend a couple of things:
1. At minimum, thoroughly discuss with your manufacturer’s rep what the warranty consists of, what it covers and over what period of either static time or operating hours. Get it on paper; and
2. Depending on the degree of difficulty in changing out a fixture at some point in the future, consider an extended warranty. 3rd party warranties can cover not only labor, but are at times available to extend the warranty period as well. Regency Lighting offers some great advice on this topic here: When to Consider an Extended LED Lighting Warranty.
By the way, it’s not uncommon at all for a fixture’s occupancy sensor to be warranted for a different period of time than the fixture it’s been installed in. The sensitivity of a sensor to heat, for example, may be greater than the fixture. Or vibration (air movement) might come into play.
