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Glossary of Terms

Colour Temperature

The appearance and ambience created by a light source is referred to as its colour temperature. We call lights ‘warm white’ or ‘cool white’ based on this measure. It is derived from the colour produced when heating a black body. As you raise the temperature the black body produces first a reddish glow, giving way to oranges and yellows, and then finally to blues.  These temperatures are measured in the Kelvin (K) scale, with 3000k warm white, 4000K neutral white and 6000k cool white. Oddly, this means the high temperatures of 6000K are called cool and the lower ones of 3000K warm because we associate red with warmth and blue with cool.

CRI

CRI stands for Colour Rendering Index. It’s a test to see how well the light shows colours on a scale of 1 to 100. High CRI gives a more realistic colour appearance so that apples appear properly red and everything looks bright and crisp. Low CRI gives a washed out appearance. Yellow sodium vapour street lights are so bad at showing colour they get a negative rating. A CRI score above 80 is considered more than adequate and is suitable for retail applications. Scores of 90 and above are for specialised museum lighting and medical applications. The overwhelming majority of Haneco lights score 80 or above.

Lumen (lm)

Lumens are a measure of the quantity of visible light emitted. People have grown accustomed to using watts as a measure of brightness, but watts only ever referred to the amount of energy consumed. A 60W bulb is of course brighter than a 40W bulb, but what is being measured is the energy consumed to achieve that brightness. LEDs have so dramatically improved the conversion of power (watts) into visible light (lumens) that a 60W LED emits at least five times as much light as an old 60W incandescent bulb. 800 lumens is roughly equivalent to the light produced by an old 60W bulb, but is the standard output of a 9W LED. And because this level of efficiency is continually improving, it is probably more useful to look at the lumen output of a light rather than its wattage.

Luminous efficacy (lm/W)

Luminous efficacy is a measure of how many lumens are produced per watt. It is just lumen output divided by watts. LEDs typically yield between 70 and 100 lumens per watt compared to 50 for a standard fluorescent and an abysmal 13 to 20 for incandescents. A figure in excess of 100 indicates a highly efficient light.

Lux and illuminance

Lux measures the light intensity that falls on a surface. It is a measure used by lighting designers to ensure that spaces are adequately lit. One lux is one lumen per square metre, so concentrating 1000 lumens on one square metre gives you 1000 lux and concentrating the same amount of lumens over 2 square metres is 500 lux. The lux measure of a light source depends on the distance it is from the surface it is lighting. If you move a light source away from the surface, you increase the spread of light and consequently diminish its lux. The term for what is being measured is illuminance. For example, the illuminance you need for a warehouse aisle can range from 80 -200 lux and for an office around 320 lux depending on the tasks being performed.

IP

IP stands for Ingress Protection. It is a way of rating how well protected the device is from things that can get into it. It is a two figure system (e.g. IP54), with the first number (5) rating solid objects and dust and the second number (4) water. Solids – the first number – are rated from 1 to 6 with 1 being an object a bit larger than 50mm, such as a hand. 6 is totally dust tight. The second figure is the water protection rating. The range is from 1 for slow dripping water from above up to 8 for a device that can be submerged. So a product rated IP40 has no protection against water, but is proof against wires and large insects. See the table below.

First numberSOLIDSSecond numberWATER
0Not protected0Not protected
1Protected against objects larger than 50mm1Protected against dripping water
2Protected against objects larger than 12.5mm2Protected against dripping water when tilted up to 15°
3Protected against objects larger than 2.5mm3Protected against spraying water at an angle of up to 60°
4Protected against objects larger than 1mm4Protected against splashing water from any direction
5Dust protected5Protected against jets of water from any direction
6Dust tight6Protected against heavy seas and powerful jets of water
  7Can be submerged for a limited time between 15cm and 1m
  8Protected against long periods of immersion under pressure

IK

The IK rating refers to impact protection.  It is a 1 to 10 system with a higher number indicating a more robust product able to withstand a greater impact.  The sort of impact being tested is not intense like a sledgehammer force.  IK08 is only able to resist 5 joules without damage, which is the impact of 1.7 kg dropped from 300mm.   That’s a nearly full kettle dropped from quite a small distance.  Not something you want your hand under and a good indication of resilience, but hardly a vigorous hammer blow.  Our SKYPAD however is rated IK10 which means it can take four times that impact – equivalent to a full tin of paint dropped on it from just under half a metre.

 

Impact Protection (Ik) Classifications
IK00Not protected
IK01Protected against the impact of 0.25 kg dropped from 56mm (0.14 joules)
IK02Protected against the impact of 0.25kg dropped from 80mm (0.2 joules)
IK03Protected against the impact of 0.25kg dropped from 140mm (0.35 joules)
IK04Protected against the impact of 0.25kg dropped from 200mm (0.5 joules)
IK05Protected against the impact of 0.25kg dropped from 280mm (0.7 joules)
IK06Protected against the impact of 0.25kg dropped from 400mm (1 joule)
IK07 Protected against the impact of 0.5kg dropped from 400mm (2 joules)
IK08 Protected against the impact of 1.7kg dropped from 300mm (5 joules)
IK09 Protected against the impact of 5kg dropped from 200mm (10 joules)
IK10 Protected against the impact of 5kg dropped from 400mm (20 joules)

Beam angle

The beam angle we refer to is the useful spread of light from the luminaire. It’s measured from the point of maximum intensity directly under the light to where the light drops to 50% of that intensity. Anything beyond that is called spill light and the whole light distribution is called the field angle.

Expected lifetime

The expected lifetime of LED lights is calculated as the time it takes for the light to diminish to 70% of its original brightness. It’s called lumen depreciation. So after 50,000 hours (that’s more than 13 years if the light is on for 10 hours a day) a light that originally emitted 1000 lumens will be down to 700 lumens.

IC ratings

IC stands for ‘insulation contact’ and determines whether downlights can safely come into contact with flammable material or with any covering that might interfere with the luminaire’s cooling system. IC and IC-4 mean that the light can be covered with insulation, CA90 means that insulation can abut but not cover the fixing and non-IC means that insulation must be kept clear.

HACCP Food Safe

HACCP Australia is a leading food science organisation that certifies products as food safe and appropriate for use in food production and food handling areas. Their slogan is ‘eliminate the hazard – reduce the risk’ and certification is based on a thorough assessment and physical examination of the product. Generally a lighting product that meets their standards has to be non toxic, easy to clean and likely to reduce the risk of contamination. This certificate lists the Haneco products deemed food safe.

DIM

Some LED luminaires are not always compatible with existing dimming systems or do not come with dimmable drivers. There are several dimming systems – DALI, 1-10V and phase cut. Phase cut includes leading or trailing edge dimming and the combination of both called universal. For dimming to work smoothly, you need to ensure that you have the appropriate driver and dimmer. DALI and 1-10V dimming provide the most reliable dimming method as the dimming is controlled by the driver itself and not by changing the input voltage as phase cut does. However, phase cut is always the most cost effective.

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