Power Output and Dosing
Power Output Numbers being claimed by many vendors of Red Light Therapy Units show a lot of unsubstantiated and misleading claims being made.
Some Vendors publish their units Power Consumption numbers (instead of their Power Output) which are not only misleading high, but totally irrelevant in terms of dosing.
Other Vendors use LED manufacturers Radiant Flux measurements at the Emitter Surface (right up against the actual LED), to claim numbers about 3x higher than the actual output thru their optical system. Considering the lights are not used without their optics in place, those numbers would be useless to calculate dosing.
Its Time to Report Scientifically Accurate Measurements: In an effort to insure complete accuracy and to hopefully start setting a new standard and baseline for our industry, we recently sent our lights out to be tested by Light Lab International LLC, an Independent Accredited Testing Lab, utilizing state of the art Integrating Sphere measurements. Aside from providing accurate Photometry measurements of Power Output/ Wavelength, it revealed the shortcomings and biases of most commonly used measuring techniques.
We encourage other vendors to do the same and help set a new standard by having their lights Independently tested by an Accredited Photometry Lab before making any claims. We need accurate, honest, reality based numbers.
As a Consumer or Practitioner, accurate dosing relies on accurate power output measurements. Always look for Validated, Independent Test Lab results to support output claims.
What the Power Output Numbers Mean:
Independent testing showed the importance of 2 numbers:
Total Power Output (Total Radiant Flux) - Very important number measuring the total energy output exiting the front of the light during a time unit mW/sec
Average Irradiance - Often called Power Density, expressed as mW/cm2. This is actually not a direct measurement, but a number calculated by averaging Total Power Output over the total surface output area (front of the light)
Of course the accuracy of this calculation - mW/cm2 - relies on the accuracy of Total Power Output measurement, which requires very sophisticated large detector sensors typically found in a Physics Lab. When you see mW/cm2 numbers claimed by Vendors, ask for validation and inquire how the data was collected.
Tested August 31, 2020 by LightLab International Allentown, LLC
Rxed 660 RxBlue 470 Rxed Plus 660-850 Irradiance surface area: 6.16 cm2
Rxed - Total Output 612 mW/sec Avg Irradiance/area: 99 mW/cm2
RxBlue - Total Output 450 mW/sec Avg Irradiance/area: 73 mW/cm2
Rxed Plus - Total Output 1000 mW/sec Avg Irradiance/area: 162 mW/cm2