Updated May 18, 2021 to reflect revisions
The DesignLights Consortium® released the final version of SSL Technical Requirements Version 5 on February 14, 2020. This version includes two policies - V5.0 and V5.1 - which have different effective dates. V4.4 listed products must be updated to V5.0 by January 31, 2021 (extended due to COVID-19), or they will be delisted on February 28, 2021. V5.0 listed products must be updated to V5.1 by April 15, 2022, or they will be delisted on June 30, 2022.
According to the DLC®, “the purpose is to continue to accelerate broad scale energy savings by improving the quality of light and controllability of DLC listed products.”
The basis of V5.0 is efficacy, increase quality of light, and controllability. Let’s explore each of these in more detail.
By increasing efficacy more energy savings can be captured in utility programs. Which in turn provides more value to customers. The long term goal for efficacy is to continue to increase it so there will be positive impacts on quality and cost. The V5 efficacy increase represents a smaller increase as did previous versions, but over time the small increases will have a big impact.
Requirements:
Improving the quality of light provides more comfort and satisfaction to customers. Quality of light is a characteristic that enables differentiation of products with better quality performance.
There are no changes for V5.0 they were moved to V5.1.
With improved controllability more energy savings can be captured in utility programs - which brings more value to customers. It’s also an important aspect of quality of light and the backbone for networked lighting controls and IoT.
There may be some leeway until May 31, 2020 on applications in process, but we would encourage you to review everything that you’re trying to get approved for DLC listing.
Understanding the difference between DLC Standard and Premium is very important. It is not just efficacy. Premium is a higher-performance classification for luminaires and retrofit kits. Products submitted to the DLC Premium classification must meet higher efficacy and lumen maintenance requirements and must also provide a driver ISTMT and information about integral controls, in addition to meeting all of the base requirements. If a manufacturer seeks qualification of its products to the DLC Premium classification, it must provide all the necessary testing to demonstrate the products meet the higher classification’s additional requirements. DLC Standard minimum efficacy requirements increase an average of 12% over V4.4 and Premium is increasing a flat 15 lumens per watt increase over Standard. All Premium products must be capable of continuous dimming.
Due to the amount of feedback for Flicker and since there is no standard on measuring it yet, this topic will be discussed in 2021 and will not be in V5 or V5.1.
| TOPIC | V4.4 to V5.0 Changes | V5.0 to V5.1 Changes |
| Efficacy | Efficacy is increased | New general application and update PUD |
| Color | None | Changes to chromaticity and color rendition requirements New color maintenance requirements |
| Light Distribution | None | Additional distribution requirements |
| Controllability | New dimming requirements | Comprehensive dimming requirements and controls reporting |
| Allowances | None | New allowances and higher maximum |
| DLC® Premium | New efficacy, dimming, and controls reporting requirements | New color and discomfort glare requirements |
| Tolerances | None | New and updated tolerances |
| Lumen Maintenance | None | TM-21 Addendum B compliance and uneven intervals exception |
| Reference Housings | None | Removed for some lamps; replaced with beam angle requirement |
| Power Factor & THD | None | None |
| Warranty | None | None |
| Safety Certification | None | None |
We’ll cover V5.1 in more detail later this year, but here are some things to keep in mind about it: