Frequently Asked Questions

Application Questions

Expand all Collapse all

• Can your products be used in damp/wet locations such as showers, soffits, etc?

  "Wet" locations are defined as being exposed to non-climate controlled environments, wind driven rain and/or pressurized water, and condensing moisture.  "Damp" locations are defined as being exposed to non-climate controlled environments, minimal water exposure (few droplets), and being at least 7' from any potential standing water.  "Dry" locations are defined as less than 75% humidity and no water exposure. Please refer to the specific Product Spec Sheet to determine suitable operating environments.

• Can any part of your products or trims be painted?

  Painting, staining, or otherwise altering our products voids the warranty.  The surfaces of the products themselves should not be painted, as they act as heat radiators and painting can reduce the products' ability to dissipate heat.

• Can your products be mounted upside down, sideways, etc.?

  The downlight and troffer families of products are designed to be mounted vertically, either straight up or straight down. The lamp family of products can be mounted in any orientation.

Dimmer Questions

Expand all Collapse all

• What type of dimmers do I need?

  Each of our product families are carefully evaluated for compatibility with a variety of dimming controls. The following link will take you to a list of dimmers recommended by Cree :  Recommended Dimmers.

• Will the dimmer I have work?

  Please refer to the Recommended Dimmer List for dimmers tested with our products and recommended for use with our products.

• Are power and light output linear and/or proportional when dimming?

  When dimming Cree LED Lighting products, power vs. light output are not linear.  Efficacy is reduced as the light is dimmed, meaning Lumens Per Watt goes down approximately 30% from full brightness to the bottom of the dimming range.

• Why is the wattage requirement higher when using dimmers?

  This is due to inrush current and the capability of inverter based systems to handle it.

• Do any of your products offer bi-level switching or step-dimming options?

  The CR series of commercial troffers are the only product that have bi-level switching.

• Do your products change light color when dimmed?

  No. All of our current products are designed to maintain light color consistent through the dimming range.

Electrical Questions

Expand all Collapse all

• Can your products and other products be mixed on the same circuit?

  Generally yes, as long as the other lighting product does not cause excessive line noise.  When dimming it is not recommended to put Cree Lighting Products on the same dimming circuit as other light sources, with the exception of an incandescent light.

• Are your products compatible with emergency backup systems?

  Yes, with inverter style battery backup systems that produce true sinewave outputs.  When sizing Emergency Backup Systems, multiply the nominal power load by 2.5x to determine the size of system needed.

• Are your fixtures grounded?

  Our downlight and troffer products are attached directly to earth ground at installation. Our lamp products are not.

• Can I use higher gauge (smaller) wiring since your products draw much less current?

  Although Cree LED Lighting Products run at much lower current levels than typical lighting, wiring size is determined by local code requirements and by the NEC.

• Why do I need to use power packs for LR24™ troffers?

  The LR24 troffer is designed to be used with “Low Voltage” or “0-10V DC control” type dimmers. These are dimmers that are NOT connected in line with the power supplying the light to be dimmed. Basically, they have two separated wiring group. One pair of wires goes to the dimming module connections on a light fixture (LR24 troffer) or dimming ballast. The other pair of wires goes to power packs for power supply control. The power pack provides both the 24 V power supply to operate dimmers as well as the 20 A line voltage relay to control the load in one compact housing.

General Questions

Expand all Collapse all

• What’s an LED?

  Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are solid-state lighting components. They have no moving, fragile parts and can last for decades. LEDs can be many times more energy-efficient than light bulbs, depending on the application. LED lighting can save up to 85 percent of the electricity used by incandescent bulbs and up to 50 percent of electricity used by fluorescents. Most of the energy emitted from incandescent bulbs is converted to heat instead of light. That’s why you’ll burn yourself if you try to touch an incandescent bulb once it’s turned on. LED lighting is about 85 percent more efficient than incandescent bulbs. Since LEDs consume significant less energy, they don’t emit as much heat. That’s why you typically won’t burn yourself if you try to touch an LED light once it’s turned on. LED lights are also designed to last about 50 times longer, which means less ladder-climbing maintenance and less waste.  Please visit the following link to help you calculate how much you could save if you switch your traditional lights to LEDs -

  Energy Savings Calculator
  
  We also suggest you surf the following websites for more info about LEDs –

  LED University

  LEDs 101

  Cree LED Revolution

• UV and/or IR emissions?

  Unlike incandescent and fluorescent light sources, Cree LED Lighting Products produce virtually no light in the Ultraviolet (UV) or Infrared (IR) spectrums.

• What is TrueWhite® Technology?

  Cree TrueWhite Technology is elegantly simple, yet incredibly effective. It delivers high efficacy light with beautiful, warm color characteristics by mixing the light from yellow and red LEDs. This approach enables active color management to maintain tight color consistency over the life of the product. Here are the competitive advantages of Cree TrueWhite technology -

  • A better way to generate white light that utilizes a patented mixture of unsaturated yellow and saturated red LEDs.
  • Proprietary optical system utilizes a unique combination of reflective and refractive optical components to achieve a uniform, comfortable appearance. Pixelation and direct view of LEDs is eliminated.
  • High CRI and high efficacy allows customers to avoid having to make tradeoffs between energy efficiency and light quality as compared to other lighting alternatives.

  Our products combine Cree TrueWhite Technology with numerous technical innovations, including breakthroughs in optical design, electronics design, mechanical design, and thermal management to develop market-leading LED lighting products.  These products are changing the way we look at light.

• What is CRI, and why is it important?

  Color Rendering Index (CRI) is defined as a light sources ability to render color.  The higher the CRI, the better the light source renders every color in the visible spectrum.  To have what is generally considered good color rendering, a source must be >90 CRI.

• How many LED fixtures do I need compared to other sources, i.e. incandescent, CFL, etc.?

  There are many different types of lighting, housings, trims and accessories, and lamp types available.  Please refer to the Product Spec Sheet for photometry information.

• What are the beam angles of your products?

  Our downlights are designed to deliver an optimal distribution of light that balances the amount of light delivered to the horizontal surfaces and vertical surfaces. The distribution is more sophisticated than what may be defined by a simple beam angle. It is a general illuminator that delivers an optimal amount of light when utilized on typical downlight spacing.

• Do you have .ies files for your products?

  All .ies files of our products  can be found at our information download center: Download Center

• Can you tell us about the LED chips inside the lighting fixtures?

  Our lighting fixtures include Cree LED chips.  The precise nature of the LED chips are confidential and proprietary aspects of Cree’s TrueWhite® Technology.

• Do your products shift color and/or intensity over time? How much?

  Our products are all designed to meet ENERGY STAR requirements for lifetime color maintenance, meaning they must stay within 7 equivalent MacAdam ellipses over their lifetime. Lifetime, given as L70, is the number of operating hours until the light intensity is reduced to 70% of original.  Refer to the Product Spec Sheet for the L70 of a specific product.

• Are your products consistent in color and/or intensity?

  Our products are all designed to meet ENERGY STAR requirements for spatial uniformity, meaning they must all be within 4 equivalent MacAdam ellipses.

• Are your fixtures/housings fire rated?

  Fire Rating depends on the housing, and currently none of our housings are fire rated. Our downlight products are designed for fire rated housings.

• Do you offer sloped ceiling options?

  We do not currently offer downlight products designed for sloped ceilings, however our lamp product family is compatible with most sloped ceiling housings.

• Is each Cree LED Lighting product tested before it is shipped?

  Yes, each Cree LED Lighting product is individually tested and tuned to the optimal color point before shipment.

• Are your fixtures suitable for in-ground fixtures?

  At this point Cree LED Lighting doesn’t have any products for in-ground lighting applications.

• How much are your products?

  Cree LED Lighting products are sold through distribution. The following link will help you to locate your closest Cree LED Lighting distributor for pricing requests –

  Where to Buy

• Why should I buy your products vs incandescent or CFL?

  Cree LED Lighting products provide high light quality (>90 CRI), long life (L70 >50,000 hours), high efficacy (up to 100 Lumens Per Watt), produce very little heat, and require virtually no maintenance. Neither incandescent nor CFLs can provide all of those features.

• How do you verify the performance of your products?

  The performance of all of our products is verified by accredited independent 3rd party laboratories.

• Where I can see Cree LED Lighting products?

  Please visit the following link to find the lighting events we are attending this year -

  Cree Events

   

  We hope to see you there. Please do not hesitate to contact us anytime with any feedback or questions about our products.

• Are your products difficult to install? Do I need special wiring, dimmers, etc.?

  Our products are designed to be easy to install with no special tools or experience needed, using conventional dimmers and wiring. Please reference our installation information for detailed documentation.

• Can your products be installed outside?

  Our LED downlights are UL Listed® for damp locations. However, they are not waterproof/ weatherproof. You can’t use our lighting fixtures for outdoor applications.

• Does turning LED lighting on and off reduce lifetime?

  No. Unlike incandescent and fluorescent lighting which will fail sooner when switched on and off more often, LED lighting is unaffected by how often it is switched on and off.

• What's the difference between 2700K and 3500K?

  Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) is defined as the color of light given off by a particular light source that most closely represents the light emitted from a perfect blackbody radiator when heated to a certain temperature.  Incandescent lamps have a typical CCT of 2700K (warm white light).  Fluorescent lamps can have CCT's varying from 3000K to 5000K (cool white light).  3500K is generally considered "neutral" white light.

• What does "Lifetime 50,000 hours" mean?

  Useful life has been defined as the number of hours an LED device can operate until it emits only a certain percentage of its original lumen output. For general illumination applications, vision research suggests that 70 percent of original lumen output is the level where end users begin to notice a drop in light levels. This metric is indicated as L70. The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) published LM-80-08, IES Approved Method for Measuring Lumen Maintenance of LED Light Sources. Cree tested our LED lamps for long-term lumen maintenance consistent with LM-80 methods to demonstrate L70 life after more than 6000 hours of testing and got the number 50,000 hours under normal operating conditions. Also the performance of all of our products is verified by accredited independent 3rd party laboratories. Please note, any initial condition or parameter change will affect the useful life of LEDs in different ways.

Housing & Mechanical Questions

Expand all Collapse all

• What is the ceiling hole size required for your housings?

  Refer to the Product Spec Sheet or Installation Instructions for the specific products.

• Are any of your products compatible with shallow housings?

  Some of our downlight products are compatible with shallow housings.  Please refer to the Recommended Housing List for the specific product. 

• Can your lamps be installed in enclosed housings?

  Our lamps are designed for open air and semi-enclosed housings, but not recommended for fully enclosed housings.

• What housings are compatible?

  Compatibility was determined based on whether the lighting fixtures would fit within the identified can when appropriately modified. Our products should easily fit most standard IC or non-IC housings. Please refer to the Recommended Housing List for the specific product. 

• Are your products rated for IC and/or airtight housings?

  Our downlight products are rated for use in IC and airtight housings.

• Does installing your product in a housing make it airtight?

  The airtightness is dependent on the housing, and not the lighting fixture installed in it.

• Can a CFL housing be converted to LED?

  If the CFL housing is pin-based with an integral housing, then no.  If the CFL housing is an incandescent housing with a CFL installed in it, then refer to the Recommended Housing List for compatibility.

• What is the difference between the RC6 and the H6 housings?

  Both RC6 and H6 are recessed housings for new construction designed to accommodate all Cree 6-inch downlights. RC6 is designed for Edison sockets and GU24 sockets (Title-24 Applications). However, H6 is designed for 277V connectors. It’s also the only housing our LR6-277V will go into.

• Housing Compatibility for LBR30™/LRP-38™ lamps?

  Compatibility was determined based on whether the LBR30 / LRP38 lamp would fit within the identified can when appropriately modified. The LBR30 / LRP38 lamp is designed for new construction and retrofit, both lamps simply screw into new or existing recessed housings or track fixtures for easy installation. However, we still suggest that you fit test when you design for our LBR30 and LRP38 lamps to be certain. Also please note that in any install, the installer should make sure that the LBR30 / LRP38 lamp is securely retained in the housing at the time of install.

• Will C6 work with LR6-277V?

  No. LR6-277V only works with H6-277V.

Rating & Certification Questions

Expand all Collapse all

• Are your products EnergyStar certified?

  All of our products that have an EnergyStar category are EnergyStar approved.

• Are your products Title 24 compliant?

  Our products meet California and Washington state Title 24 requirements.

• Are your products plenum rated?

  We do not currently offer any plenum rated products.

• Do your products have excessive RFI emissions?

  All of our products meet FCC part 15 guidelines for radiated and conducted emissions.

• Are your products UL certified?

  All Cree LED Lighting products are UL certified. Please visit the UL website to find more details about our certifications to UL standards -

  • LR6™ /CR6™ Family- UL1598
  • LR4™ and LR5™ Families-UL1598
  • LRP-38 Family – UL1993
  • LR24 Family – UL1598
  • SC6 Family – UL1598

Customer Support

 
For support of all Cree products,
send email to
productsupport@cree.com or call:

US Toll Free: 866-924-3645
Outside the US: +1-919-287-7888