The Voluntary Organisation in Interest of Consumer Education (VOICE) conducted comparative tests of 14 of the most popular brands of Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) available in India. A CFL that costs between Rs 100 to Rs 160 of 15 W saves a consumer Rs 1,600 over its lifetime of 6000 hours in energy bills.

The objective of this testing was to establish the quality of CFL lamp brands, and rate them according to their performance, one of the most important test parameters being the life duration of the CFL Lamp.

Highlights of the report are outlined below.

CFLs do not meet Indian standards on life duration

Indian standards require that CFLs operate at least for a period of 6,000 hours. Consumer VOICE tests establish that except for five brands, all other brands fail to reach even the half-way 3,000-hour mark. In strong contrast, US standards expect a CFL’s lifespan to be of at least 10,000 hours, on an average. Only one brand- Halonix- has the US Energy Star label.

ISI Mark labelling missing

None of the 14 brands tested had the ISI mark “the Indian seal of quality approval for products.” The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has evolved an energy label for CFLs that will become operational in the next year. VOICE has worked closely with the BEE, giving them crucial data on energy efficiency performance of CFLs and other electrical products.

Key Findings

• Brands like Leuci (the cheapest) and Angelo which cost Rs. 20 and Rs. 115 respectively give very poor performance. 
• No brand has the ISI mark.
• Philips gives the best overall performance but as far as value of money is concerned, Halonix priced Rs. 65 less than Philips is in intelligent choice.
• Halonix is the only brand to carry the US Energy Star Eco label.
• Philips, Orpat, Osram, GE and Halonix are the only brands which manage to last for 3,000 hours.
• Brands which secure hundred percent marks on account of all their samples lasting for 3,000 hours are Philips, Orpat, Osram, GE and Halonix. Of the other brands, 50% the products of Bajaj, Surya and Cema failed from this point of view.

Information from: Voluntary Organisation in Interest of Consumer Education (VOICE)