Patent ID: 8866406

Claim:
A method of determining efficacy of one or more light sources in a luminaire housing for a given set of operating conditions comprising: a. thermally characterizing the luminaire housing for effectiveness as a heat sink comprising determining a housing temperature for the given set of operating conditions based on one or more of: i. a physical dimension of at least a portion of the luminaire housing; ii. a property of one or more materials from which the luminaire housing is comprised; iii. the number of light sources in the luminaire housing; iv. a thermal property of a light source in the luminaire housing; and v. spacing between at least some of the light sources in the luminaire housing; b. determining one or more light source output degradation factors for the one or more light sources at the given set of operating conditions based, at least in part, on (i) a measured light output of said one or more light sources at one or more operating conditions, and (ii) the thermal characterization of the luminaire housing or a deviation between the light output measurements and a reference data at the given set of operating conditions; and c. predicting actual light output and/or efficacy of the one or more light sources at the operating conditions based on (i) the thermal characterization of the luminaire housing, (ii) a rated efficacy of the one or more light sources, and (iii) the one or more degradation factors.