Why do new LED light bulbs have such poor energy labels?

You may have noticed that many electrical items and light bulbs now only have energy efficiency class E or F. The reason is as follows: In September 2021, light bulbs and other light bulbs received new energy labels from the EU .  

Technological advances have steadily increased in recent years, leading to significant improvements in energy efficiency. As a result, many products were in the highest efficiency classes of A to A++. The differences in energy efficiency were barely noticeable, and the lower classes almost disappeared from the market. Therefore, the EU decided to revise the energy label. The new classifications are now much more refined, and the products are once again more widely distributed. This relabeling often led to a drop in energy efficiency from, for example, class A+ to F. 

The benefit for consumers is clear: They can now more easily identify energy-efficient appliances with the new label. 

For example, an LED light bulb with a brightness of 550 lumens currently consumes approximately 7 watts of energy. With approximately 78 lumens per watt, it was assigned an A+ rating under the old energy label. However, to achieve this rating with the new energy label, a full 210 lumens per watt consumed are required.

In reality, however, only very few manufacturers currently manage to do this. 

The demands on us as manufacturers have therefore increased significantly and we have been given an incentive to further improve our products and make them even more energy-efficient.