CFL Quality Charter

European Compact Fluorescent Lamps Quality Charter
Link: http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/CFL/pdf%20CFL%20quality%20charter/EU%20CFL%20QC%202003%20V4.pdf

Target:

The European CFL Quality Charter is a voluntary set of criteria established by the European Commission in collaboration with a number of private and public organisations.
The present European Quality Charter for CFL was initially developed in 1998 on the initiative of the European Commission and Eurelectric to support the promotion of efficient lighting in the residential sector.
The main objective of the European CFL Quality Charter is to support the manufacturing, marketing and sale of high quality CFLs in the European Union in order to offer customers a satisfying product. Additionally, the CFL Quality Charter aims at raising consumer awareness and confidence in the CFL‐technique by assuring that certain quality and performance levels are reached.

Product/service group:

The present European CFL Quality Charter is a voluntary scheme open to:

• CFL manufacturers, importers and retailers marketing in the EU
• CFLs that meet the requirements of the European CFL Quality Charter
• Private and public organisations (e.g. utilities, public authorities, housing associations, hotels etc,), that conform to the requirements of the CFL Quality Charter

Awarding Institution & criteria:

The CFL Quality Charta includes:

• self‐ballasted, one and two part compact fluorescent lamps (CFL’s) with Edison screw or bayonet cap

The CFL Quality Charta excludes:

• CFL’s with a magnetic ballast

The CFL Quality Charta criteria (simplified description):

• Safety: Lamps must meet the safety requirements of EN 60968 (or EN 61199 and EN 60598) and comply with relevant CE Marking legislation.
• Energy efficiency: Class A of the EU energy label
• Lumen maintenance: After 2000 hours the luminous flux should be not less than 88% of the initial luminous flux (for lamps without external casing) and 83% of the initial luminous flux (for lamps with external casing)
• Stabilised light output: The time to 80% of stabilised light output after switch‐on from cold at normal room temperature should be less than 60 seconds.
• Ignition requirement: The number of ignitions that the lamp can endure should not be less than the claimed lamp life in hours.
• Colour rendering: CRI > 80
• Life: Minimum life cycle should be 6,000 hr.

Participating lamp manufacturers, CFLs importers and retailers agree to promote CFLs which are up to the standard of the CFL Quality Charter. They may use the logo of the CFL Quality Charter for advertisement etc., but only in connection with products that meet the criteria. The logo must not be used on individual products or their packaging.

Control mechanisms:

JRC (European Commission Joint Research Centre) reserves the right to test, review or ask for additional information for any product that is claimed to meet the European CFL Quality Charter criteria.

The European CFL Quality Charter is revised regularly to keep up with technological development.

Relevance on the market:

CFLs represent only 5% of the lamp market in the residential sector. There is still much to do to capture a large part of the remaining 95 %. The availability of good quality products is essential to call customers attention to the advantages (e.g. energy efficiency, long life cycle) of CFLs.