LEDs In Your Home May Not Be Energy Efficient. Read This

At an energy forum held in May this year at Vienna, while introducing India's Union Minister for Energy Piyush Goyal, it was said that India is in the midst of the “largest energy transformation project in the world". India, which is turning towards green and efficient systems to create more jobs, offer a better quality of life and cleaner air and water to its citizens, introduced a light emitting diode (LED)-lighting replacement programme in 2015. Under the National Programme for LED-based Home and Street Lighting, the government planned to replace the conventional domestic bulbs and also switch all the street lamps across 100 cities to LED lamps.

As of January 2017, more than 21 crore LED bulbs have been distributed countrywide, saving Rs 25.8 crore every day and a reduction of 52,728 ton of carbon dioxide.

But, are these LED bulbs, being produced in India under the Make In India initiative, a quality product?

In a recent report by Neilsen, covering four major Indian cities — New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad, 76 per cent of LED bulb brands and 71 per cent of LED downlighter brands across 200 outlets in these cities have been found to be non-compliant as per consumer safety standards. These standards are prescribed and mandated for lighting products by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. According to the report, "the spurious products impact government's tax revenue collections, defeat investment objectives and go against the 'ease of doing business' philosophy".

According to Electric Lamp and Component Manufacturers Association (ELCOMA), India's LED market is valued at around Rs 10,000 crore and LED bulbs and downlighters constitute nearly half of this number.

Here are some key findings of the report:

*Of the four cities, Delhi leads the list with the highest number of violations standing at 73 per cent bulbs and downlights being sold without a BIS mark.

*Hyderabad stands second with 69 per cent BIS violations by LED bulb manufactures, followed by Gujarat's Ahmedabad with 53 per cent and the financial capital Mumbai with 36 per cent violations in the same category.

*The data in the survey show 48 per cent of LED bulb brands did not mention the manufacturer's address while 31 per cent did not have manufacturer's name.

*In case of LED downlighters brands, 45 per cent did not have the manufacturer's name and 51 per cent did not mention the manufacturer's address.

*Of all the cities Mumbai recorded the least violations. For LED bulbs, the city recorded only two per cent of the manufacturers, not printing manufacturer's address and name on the package. For downlighters, only five per cent failed to mention the manufacturer's details.

 In August, the BIS announced that LED manufacturers across the country need to register their product with the organization for safety checks. The Indian market has over the years witnessed smuggling of Chinese products and that the move would put a stop to such practices and ensure that only the certified products are sold to the consumers in the market.