Here are a few ways to find information about Tri-State LED products:

• Go to our website, tristateled.com. The website contains information about LED technology, product specification sheets, and supporting documentation for products and services.
• Contact customer support toll free: 203-813-3791 or e-mail: [email protected], and we are happy to provide you with information about all of our products.

Contact customer support toll free: 203-813-3791 or e-mail: [email protected], and we are happy to provide you with information about all of our products.

A watt is the measure of power consumption, and is the common way incandescent light bulbs are identified — for example 60-watt, 75-watt and 100-watt. When purchasing a light bulb, however, what you really should look for is lumens, which is the measure of light output. When you purchase a 60-watt incandescent bulb, you are getting about 800 lumens. Due to the way that LEDs produce light, it is possible that an LED bulb or fixture that produces less lumens can appear just as bright if not brighter than the original light source being replaced.

Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) is defined as the color of light given off by a particular light source that most closely represents the light emitted from a perfect blackbody radiator when heated to a certain temperature (K). 2700K is typically described as warm white light, 4100K is equivalent to white, and 5100K is equivalent to cool white.

Our LED lamps and luminaires have a rated life from 50,000 hour up to 70,000 hours, which is up to three times greater than fluorescent lighting with a typical lamp life of up to 25,000 hours.

Incandescent dimmers are designed for “resistive” loads, and typically rated for at least 600 watts.  They have a requirement called “minimum holding current”, which is the minimum amount of electrical current flowing through them to keep the dimmer firing properly.

Tri-State’s LED Lighting lamp products have electronic drivers that are “reactive” (capacitive and/or inductive) and draw very little power. These two factors result in electrical current that is just barely above the minimum holding current for most dimmers, and below it for others.  There are other factors specific to the installation site, such as neutral-to-ground integrity, power line noise coming from the utility or other loads, and source impedance. With the minimum holding current requirement barely being met, these other factors can cause the current to dip below that threshold, resulting in occasional dimmer mis-firing which can result in a faint flickering coming from the lights.

Tri-State LED tests its products with a variety of dimmers and makes recommendations regarding compatibility based on those results, but cannot guarantee performance.

In the lighting business, the term “beam angle” has a specific meaning. It is the full angle where the light level drops to half (50%) of its highest value, which for most lamps usually falls directly underneath. A spotlight, for example, has a beam angle of only 7° to 15°, but the beam angle of an LED tube lamp could be 190°, when measured around its circumference. Regardless of the kind of lamp, though, its “beam angle” is always the point where the light intensity falls to half of its maximum, as defined by the IES.

This is a classic case of comparing apples to oranges. LEDs and fluorescents use completely different technologies to get light from one place to another. Fluorescent tubes emit light all over the place, while LEDs direct the light to where it’s needed. If a user doesn’t mind wasting 40% of his electricity to generate fluorescent light that shoots everywhere except where he needs it, then he probably drives a Hummer, too. The whole idea of LED lighting is efficiency and durability. He can enjoy the same amount of light for half the electricity, or twice as much light with the same amount of electricity, or he can keep paying those outrageous maintenance and utility bills for outdated “legacy” lighting.

Yes, and yes. Seeing is believing, as they say, so the best way to know for sure is to try it. Install LEDs in a few of your light fixtures and see how they look. A Tri-State LED representative can help you choose the right LED tube lamp for your application. But if you don’t want to do that, the next best option is to have a computer-generated lighting layout done, which evaluates the light level and distribution based on the measured light output (IES files) of the lamps you plan to use. Contact Tri-State LED Tech Support at [email protected] for a custom lighting layout for your space.

Read the spec sheets carefully and ask to see a photometric chart of the light output.   Chances are the angle is referencing the lamp’s “field angle” or some other method to measure the light spread.

Absolutely! Most building codes mandate a certain level of safety certification for any fixture in a structure. For U.S. commercial lighting, battery-backup systems should meet UL 924 requirements. Other governing standards, including the National Electrical Code (NEC), exist to evaluate real-life performance, such as: light levels and duration (NFPA 70), fire-resistance (NFPA 1), and life-safety codes (NFPA 101).

DLC allows for a tested LM-79 efficacy of up to 3% below the efficacy stated on the QPL. The scenario described above conforms to DLC’s allowable -3% tolerance. For a fuller description of DLC’s performance tolerances, please refer to “Table 5: Tolerances” on their Technical Requirements page at: https://www.designlights.org/content/qpl/productsubmit/categoryspecifications. This webpage provides a comprehensive treatment of DLC’s product specifications and is a valuable resource for most questions regarding their requirements. We’ll let you in on a little secret: We refer to it all the time!

This scenario is understandably confusing. To help clarify the issue, let’s break it down into the three different terms: “common description specs,” “tested specs,” and “rated specs.” The “common description specs” are what you see in the product’s name. For example, you may see something like, “18W 4000K 2600 Lumen Milky Tube Lamp.” These specifications are based on the circuit, driver, and LED designs used in the tube lamp, and they represent the theoretical performance of the tube. Conversely, “tested specs” are actual data that are found by a third-party laboratory when evaluating a random sample of our product. These results are packaged in a document called an LM79 report. In reference to the previously mentioned product, you may see specs like, “16.9W 4112K 2578 Lumen Milky Tube Lamp.” Remember that the tested specs are taken from a random sample, and naturally variances can occur. Finally, we get to “rated specs.” DLC allows us to submit our “rated data” when applying for a listing. The rated data often corresponds with the original designed specs. This practice is universally acceptable as long as the tested specs are within a certain margin of error from the rated specs. Though the tested and rated data don’t match identically in our example, they are within DLC tolerances; thus, they can be listed along with the rest of the family under the “rated data” umbrella.

LED fixtures must be designed with junction temperature thermal management as a key component and use the correct LEDs. These products will then be robust enough to operate in most ambient temperature applications. Unlike fluorescent sources, cold temperatures do not impact the performance of LEDs.