The US Department of Energy (DOE) has completed testing of the performance of a group of five LED products labeled as AR111 lamps through the DOE Solid-State Lighting Caliper program. Results indicate that although the lamps may perform acceptably and provide some energy savings, this product category is lagging behind other types of directional LED lamps and continued performance improvement is warranted.

For comparison, the eleven 6-in downlights tested in Round 14 of Caliper testing performed substantially better than halogen or incandescent downlights. Ten of the eleven LED products met Energy Star criteria for correlated color temperature (CCT) and color rendering index (CRI) and the efficacy was equal to or better than the system efficacy of a typical compact-fluorescent lamp (CFL) downlight luminaire.

Beginning in 2012, each Caliper summary report focuses on a single product type or application. Products have been selected with the intent of capturing the current state of the market – a cross section ranging from expected low- to high-performing products – with the bulk characterizing the average of the range. The Department allows detailed test results from Caliper testing to be distributed in the public interest for noncommercial and educational purposes