HW3: Life cycle assessment of LED lamps: Manufacturing and Use

In households, lighting is nowadays very often provided by light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. The
lighting quality may have been even improved due to the change, as LED lamps offer additional
functions, e.g., colour tuning from warm to cool white light. At the same time, the energy efficiency
of lighting has been dramatically improved.

Characteristics of 2 different LED lamps are listed in Table 1. Functional unit, to express the function
of the product system, is set at 1 megalumenhour (Mlmh; 1 000 000 lm*h) for this simplified LCA
study of the lamps. Lumen (lm) is a unit of luminous flux, i.e., the amount of light emitting from the
lamp, and hour (h) expresses the lamp lifetime.

Lamp/ Quantity Power (W) Luminous flux (lm) Life (h) Megalumenhours (Mlmh)
LED lamp 1 5 470 25 000 11,75
LED lamp 2 7 800 25 000 20
Table 1. Typical characteristics of lamps used in residential lighting.

The LED lamps may differ from each other in terms of material composition. Assumptions of the
materials and their amount per one piece of lamp are listed in Table 2. The materials are based on a
review of various lamp LCAs, and hence, the material groups are rough. In many studies that provide
inventory data for lamps, the specific electronic components, such as the LEDs, are not specified,
and the materials are grouped differently. Table 2 is a generalization of materials in the example LED
lamps.

Material composition (grams/lamp) Total weight

(grams/lamp)
Lamp Glass Metal Electronics Plastics
LED lamp 1 25 5 10 - 40
LED lamp 2 5 40 15 20 80
Table 2. Material composition of example LED lamps.

Energy consumption during manufacturing (assembly steps) can range notably but here the
estimate is 1 kWh/lamp for LED lamp 1, and 1,3 kWh/lamp for LED lamp 2. The assumption is that
the lamps are manufactured in China (abbreviation (CN) in Table 3).

The use of the lamps may vary depending on the specific application. Generally, the typical annual
operating time in households is estimated to be 1 000 h.

The extraction, processing and refining of materials used in the lamps cause environmental impacts,
such as global warming. Table 3 lists the global warming potential (GWP) factors of the materials and
electrical energy (proxies) relevant for the example LED lamps.

Material Reference material or process Climate change impact (GWP100)

Glass glass lamp bulb (envelope) (EU-28) 2,27 kg CO2-eq / kg of material
Metal steel sheet 0.75mm EG 2,36 kg CO2-eq / kg of material
Electronics printed wiring board, mixed mounted (surface 232 kg CO2-eq / kg of material
and THT), Pb free, GLO
Plastics polyethylene terephthalate granulate 3,33 kg CO2-eq / kg of material
 Electricity CN: Electricity grid mix 0,805 kg CO2-eq / kWh of energy
Electricity FI: Electricity grid mix 0,196 kg CO2-eq / kWh of energy
Electricity electricity, low voltage, photovoltaics, certified, 0,077 kg CO2-eq / kWh of energy
CH, at grid
Table 3. Examples of global warming potential in kilograms of CO2 equivalents for the materials and
energy used in household lamps. GLO = global, CN = China, FI = Finland, CH = Switzerland.

Questions 1-2 will be discussed and solved together with the teacher during the lecture reflection
& homewok clinic III, Friday 1.10.

1) How much greenhouse gas emissions (GWP) does the manufacture of the lamps cause per
functional unit (kg CO2e/Mlmh) considering

a) the material composition, and

b) energy consumption during manufacturing?

2) How much greenhouse gas emissions (GWP) does the use of the lamps cause due to the energy
consumption per functional unit? Assume that the lamps are operating in Finland, and that the
annual operating time is 1000 h.

Question 3 -5 are for homework 3 (answers for these questions need to be submitted in MyCo)

3. Reflect what aspects were not considered in questions 1 and 2. How would you improve the
accuracy of the LCA calculations related to questions 1 and 2?
4. How would the GHG emissions change, if the LED lamps 1 and 2 were
a. used in China (Table 3) instead of Finland?
b. powered by electricity produced by the example photovoltaics (Table 3) instead of
the Finnish average electricity grid mix?
5. Table 4 presents the factors for the abiotic depletion potential – minerals and metals (ADP-
m; a.k.a. ADP - elements) in kg Sb equivalents for the materials and energy assumed for the
LED lamps’ manufacturing step. Calculate the ADP-m for the manufacturing (including
materials and energy) of the LED lamp 1 and 2. Use Mlmh as the functional unit. Consider
both the material composition and energy consumption during manufacturing. Assume that
the lamps are manufactured in China. Reflect the ADP-m result compared to GWP result
calculated in lecture.

Material Reference material or process ADP – minerals and metals (ADP-m)

Glass glass lamp bulb (envelope) (EU-28) 8,44E-05 kg Sb-eq / kg of material
Metal steel sheet 0.75mm EG 4,43E-05 kg Sb-eq / kg of material
Electronics printed wiring board, mixed mounted 0,0820 kg Sb-eq / kg of material
(surface and THT), Pb free, GLO
Plastics polyethylene terephthalate granulate 6,02E-08 kg Sb-eq / kg of material
Electricity CN: Electricity grid mix 7,39E-08 kg Sb-eq / kWh of energy
Table 3. Examples of abiotic depletion potential (ADP) – minerals and metals in kilograms of
antimony (Sb) equivalents for the materials and energy used in household lamps. CN = China.