What is Part L compliance?

Part L compliance refers to Part L of UK building regulations that mandates a minimum 25% requirement of energy efficient lighting for any new build project. Therefore a quarter of all lighting must qualify as energy efficient in new building to meet Part L standards.

The building regulations define an energy efficient lighting product as one that generates a minimum 40 lumens of light output per circuit watt. Historically people used to mistakenly consider a watt as a reference of light output, but this is not the case, rather it is a measure of energy consumption.

A further condition to part L compliance is that although a low energy product may meet the requirements mentioned above, if they can be easily converted to a non energy efficient item then it can not be considered as Part L compliant. An example is that, by using an energy efficient light bulb you may generate greater than the 40 Lumen per Watt threshold but that bulb can be easily replaced by a traditional (non energy efficient) equivalent, thus it is not Part L compliant. Therefore a product may be energy efficient but not part L compliant.

As such the Green Light Store has endeavoured to clearly indicate which of our products conforms to Part L compliance so that it may be used as part of an energy efficient quota for any new build applications. However we stress that if a product is not marked as part L compliant it does not necessarily mean it is any less energy efficient that products that are!

Check out the led Downlights section for some Part L compliant fixtures.

posted: 16 January 2010 - in Help Documents