Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy releases the findings of a study which looked at the level of adoption of solid-state lighting emitting diode (LED) sources compared to traditional sources used in general illumination applications. Those applications included A-type, decorative, directional, small directional (MR16), downlighting, linear fixtures, low/high bay, area/parking lot, parking garage, street/roadway, and building exterior.
The major findings of the analysis include the following:
- From 2014 to 2016, installations of LED products have increased in all applications, more than quadrupling to 874 million units, increasing penetration to 12.6% of all lighting.
- A-type lamps represent nearly half of all LED lighting installations, and have increased to an installed penetration of 13.5% in this application. In 2016, penetration of LED lighting into linear fixture applications represents the lowest of all general illumination applications; however, it has increased from 1.3% in 2014 to 6.0% in 2016. Penetration of connected lighting controls remains small, with only less than 0.1% of lighting installed with these systems in 2016.
- In the outdoor sector, parking garages are estimated to have the highest penetration of LED lighting at 32.5% in 2016. In 2016, when comparing indoor versus outdoor applications, LED lighting has a higher penetration in outdoor applications, at 29.7%, compared to indoor applications where LED lighting has a total penetration of 12.3%; however, the indoor LED lighting penetration estimate is heavily skewed by A-type lamp installations.
- The increased penetration of LED lighting in 2016 provided approximately 469 trillion British thermal units (tBtu) in annual source energy savings, which is equivalent to an annual cost savings of about $4.7 billion.
- Annual source energy savings could approach 2,454 tBtu, about 2.4 quadrillion Btu (quads), if top tier 2016 LED products instantaneously reach 100% penetration in all applications. If these same top tier products were also configured with connected lighting controls, they would enable an additional 1,974 tBtu of energy savings for a total of 4,428 tBtu or 4.4 quads. Energy savings of this magnitude would result in an annual energy cost savings of about $44 billion.
Retrieved from: https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/08/f35/led-adoption-jul2017_0.pdf