With any new technology, there exists a learning curve and a series of stepwise improvements through the hard lessons learned. One of these hard lessons in LED lighting, which is not frequently discussed and has yet to be discovered by many growers, is LED degradation. Due to a competitive market, it’s not a topic most manufacturers like to touch as it may raise complex questions from prospective customers. This article will outline all the essential details you should know to make an educated choice on your next light purchase.

LED degradation is a term used to describe the gradual reduction in a fixture’s output over time due to wear and tear. When you purchase a product, the output specifications are listed, but these values are for when the product is new. It’s important to understand that this value may decrease slowly or rapidly depending on the quality of the product.

Causes of degradation
There are three main factors that determine the level of degradation in a fixture: the quality of the LEDs used, the thermal management of the chips, and the quality of the drivers. Additionally, how hard the LEDs are driven can also impact degradation. Understanding these factors can help you make more informed decisions when purchasing LED fixtures.

The design of a fixture always compromises between the above aspects and the price. Compared to older technologies such as HPS, more variables are at play in developing LED fixtures. This has led to a market with large price and quality differences. Where the price difference is obvious, the difference in quality is more difficult to spot and often obscured by marketing.

It is possible to produce cheap LED fixtures using inexpensive LEDs and simple mechanical design. By ‘overdriving’ LEDs, which means pushing them beyond their recommended operating conditions, the output can be decent. However, overdriving LEDs combined with poor thermal management can increase the wear and tear on the chips. This can lead to a faster degradation rate, especially when starting with inferior parts. We have seen poorly designed and manufactured fixtures in the market that degrade output by more than 10-15% annually.

Business and profit impact of light degradation
A 15% reduction in output directly translates into an equally smaller potential harvest. This decrease in productivity can significantly impact a facility’s turnover and profit, potentially leading to a rapid decline in profit. While cheap lighting may seem like a cost-effective solution initially, the decrease in production and turnover over time, coupled with unchanged energy consumption and expenses, can quickly erode any perceived savings from cheaper lighting.