DOE's CALiPER program has published a new Snapshot Report on LED MR16 lamps, which updates a similar Snapshot Report published in January 2014. In the past two years, LED technology has progressed rapidly, but the progress has been much slower for LED MR16s. The increase in mean efficacy is about half of that seen for other categories, and lumen output and center beam intensity (CBCP) haven't notably increased in recent years either. There are still no listed lamps at a given beam angle that meet the expected CBCP values for a 50W halogen MR16 using the ENERGY STAR^® calculator – although several now meet the minimum threshold required by ENERGY STAR for claiming equivalency to a 50W halogen MR16.

At the same time, the number of MR16s listed by LED Lighting Facts^® hasn't changed much in four years, and the category represents a dwindling percentage of the total number of listed lamps. Yet the market penetration for LED MR16s is among the highest for any product category.

Among other highlights from the new report:

• While efficacy and output of LED MR16s have increased, the rate of increase has been far slower than for other lamp types.

• The efficacy of MR16s currently is the lowest of any major category of products listed by LED Lighting Facts.

• A greater percentage of MR16 products meet ENERGY STAR criteria for color rendering and color temperature than two years ago.

• There have been small gains made in terms of power factor.

You can download the full report from the DOE SSL website.