After conducting a study on the LED lighting marketplace, LED Light Review, an up-and-coming authority in LED light bulb consumer communications, is posing a challenge going out to the LED lighting industry, encouraging them to solve the growing problem of model number confusion, an issue the organization says is stifling the pace of consumer adoption of LED light bulbs.
LED Light Review Co-Founder Gordon White explains the problem of model number confusion, citing an LED light bulb by Toshiba as an example. Upon reviewing the device, White discovered that the same model has 3 different model numbers. This can cause problems when referring products to other people, with three different model numbers for just one bulb only causing confusion among consumers looking to adopt LEDs.
And the problem isn’t limited to just one company either. Practically every LED light bulb manufacturer in the industry offers a single product with multiple model numbers. These include Philips, Sylvania, GE and more.
Gordon points out that retailers of LED light bulbs have different methods of using a product’s Universal Product Code (UPC). Retailers currently use the last 5 to 6 digits of a LED light’s UPC. However, there are retailers that use 5 UPC numbers, while others use 6. This doesn’t even include the number of retailers that place a dash in their UPC numbers. He adds that this has led to confusion in listing light bulbs alongside each other on sites such as Amazon.
As such, Gordon and LED Light Review recommends that trade associations encourage the creation of an industry-wide model number standard for LED light bulbs. Doing so right away is particularly important before the LED lighting industry earns a bad reputation.
