Data sheet check: only 5 of 88 lamp product pages state all six core values
On 5 August 2026 we read 88 product pages for LED pendant and ceiling lights and counted which technical values are actually listed there. Only 5 pages state all six core values at the same time: luminous flux, color temperature, CRI, lifespan, warranty and IP rating. We recorded only what is written on the pages, not what the lamps physically deliver. Five shops in the price range of 95 to 554 EUR, including our own.
Data collection date: 5 August 2026 · n = 88 product pages
For 4 years, Lea has been developing unique, modern designer lamps at fair prices. For this survey she counted the 88 product pages and assessed the values.
Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Of 88 product pages, 5 state all six core values, 76 state some of them and 7 state none of the three light values. Source: Neona Data Sheet Check 2026.
How many lamp product pages state all six core values?
Anyone who wants to compare two pendant lights objectively can't do so on most product pages.
5 of 88 pages (5.7 percent) publish all six core values. Conversely, 7 pages
(8 percent) state not a single one of the three light values lumens, kelvin and CRI. The rest fall somewhere in between and
leave out exactly the value you happen to need.
This is not a reproach aimed at individual shops, but a pattern across the segment.
What counts as a published value in this survey?
A value counts as published if it appeared in the visible page content on 5 August 2026,
that is, in the description, the data table or the product details. We deliberately did not open linked PDF data sheets and
energy labels, because a value you first have to download
doesn't help when comparing in a shop. For lights with several variants we took the highest
published luminous flux. We refer to the five shops anonymously as Shop A to Shop D
plus neona.store, because this is about a pattern across the segment and not about singling out individual retailers.
Table 1: Share of product pages that publish the respective value in their visible page content. Survey of 05.08.2026, n = 88.
Table scrolls sideways
Value
Market (49 pages)
neona.store (39 pages)
Material
98%
100% (39/39)
Dimming information
88%
97% (38/39)
Luminous flux (lm)
86%
97% (38/39)
Colour temperature (K)
86%
97% (38/39)
Lifespan
71%
77% (30/39)
CRI / Ra
65%
72% (28/39)
Warranty
59%
100% (39/39)
Source: Neona data sheet check 2026, own survey of 05.08.2026.
Why do product pages almost always list only CRI 80 or 90?
The colour rendering index, usually written as CRI or Ra on product pages, is the value with the widest spread between shops and therefore the real blind spot. Shop A states it for 14 of 14 products and Shop C for 18 of 19, whereas Shop B does so for 0 of 6 and Shop D for 0 of 10. Two of the five shops examined publish not a single CRI value in the entire sample.
What is more interesting is which numbers are given. All 32 CRI figures from the four market shops are either 80 or 90, fifteen times 80 and seventeen times 90. Not one value in between, not one higher. Across all 60 CRI figures in the sample, 29 (48.3 percent) are exactly 80 or just above 80, and only 23 (38.3 percent) are 90 or higher. For context on the lighting terms involved, see the industry portal licht.de of the German lighting industry and BauNetz Wissen Licht.
This reads like a measurement, but it is a class threshold: 80 and 90 are the limits above which a component may be sold, not what the lamp actually delivers. Where we have measured values, we state them: our 39 pages contain eleven different CRI values, including 82, 84, 87, 96 and 98. The highest are the Neona GAIA with Ra 98 and the Neona ATROPOS with Ra 97. So a 90 on a product page can mean anything between 90 and 98.
Why do all lifespan figures end up as one of four round numbers?
65 of the 88 pages state a lifespan in hours. These 65 figures are spread across exactly four values: 50,000 hours (30 times), 30,000 hours (13 times), 20,000 hours (12 times) and 25,000 hours (10 times). 23 pages give no lifespan at all. We describe in more detail how long LED lamps last in practice in How long do LED lamps last.
Four round numbers for 65 different lamps are not a measurement result but a convention. A reliable figure needs a qualifier: L80 at 50,000 hours means that after this time the LED still delivers 80 percent of its initial luminous flux. Not a single one of the 88 pages gives such a qualified figure. Until that changes, the warranty period is the more reliable number, because it binds the manufacturer.
Is a lamp dimmable if “dimmable” is in the product name?
11 of the 49 market products, or 22 percent, are by their own statement explicitly not dimmable, even though they are listed in LED or dimming categories. 8 of these are lamps from a single brand at Shop A, which is more a categorisation pattern of that shop than a property of the brand.
In practice this means: dimmability belongs in the technical data section, not in the product name. And where dimming is stated, it must also say with which technology, because a TRIAC dimmer and a trailing-edge dimmer are not the same thing and do not suit every wall switch.
Which protection rating do you need in the kitchen and bathroom?
The protection rating, written as an IP code on product pages, tells you what a lamp is protected against. The first digit stands for solid objects, the second for water. IP20 means: protected against touch, but no protection against water. That is perfectly fine for living rooms, bedrooms, hallways and dining rooms and applies to most designer lamps.
It gets interesting where water comes into play. Bathrooms are divided into protection zones, and outside the immediate vicinity of the bathtub and shower, IP44 is the usual minimum; directly above the shower, more is needed. Above the hob, it is less about water than about grease vapour and cleaning. If you are unsure, clarify it with a qualified electrician, not with a product description.
The finding from the survey is clear. Three of the four market shops state the protection rating for 100 percent of their recorded products, Shop C for 0 of 19. Even more revealing is the content: all 30 published figures from the market shops say IP20. The only lamp in the entire sample with a higher protection rating is a Neona with IP65. For this product category and this price band, that means in practice: what is sold here is light for dry rooms, and anyone looking for a lamp for the bathroom or outdoors has to filter for it deliberately instead of hoping.
Fixed or adjustable light colour: what do the pages really say?
42 of the 49 market products state a colour temperature, 22 of them as an adjustable range rather than a fixed value. For us it is 7 of 38. Where the light colour is fixed, it is almost always 3000 Kelvin (11 times) or 2700 Kelvin (8 times), so in the warm white range.
The distribution does not follow chance but the type of shop. At the two D2C design shops in the sample, adjustable light colour is the norm: Shop C states it for 16 of 17 products with a Kelvin value, Shop D for 6 of 6. At the two technically oriented retailers, it does not appear a single time in the whole sample; all 19 figures there are fixed values. Adjustable light is therefore, in this price band, more a feature of direct-to-consumer brands than of specialist retailers.
In practice, adjustable is not automatically better. Above a dining table you want warm, constant light, and a fixed light colour of 2700 Kelvin is the calmer choice for that. In the kitchen, home office or children's room, a range of 2700 to 6500 Kelvin makes sense, because the same room can be used differently in the morning than in the evening. One point that is rarely stated on the pages: with almost all adjustable lamps, the switching is done via a remote control. That is a component that can get lost, and it does not replace a wall switch.
How neona.store performs in this survey
We counted our own 39 product pages using the same rules as those of the other shops. For luminous flux, colour temperature, CRI, lifespan, material and warranty we are above the sample average, at 100 percent for warranty and material. For dimming information, 38 of 39 pages say something about dimming, mostly including the technology used, compared with 88 percent in the market.
For dimming information, 38 of 39 pages say something about dimming, often including the technology, compared with 88 percent in the market. The warranty topic reveals something about the structure of the market: 29 of 49 market products (59 percent) state a warranty period, at Shop D it is 0 of 10. At Shop A, exactly the three products of one brand list five years, while the eleven products of the other brand in the same shop state nothing at all. In this segment, warranty is therefore a property of the brand and not of the shop. We state it on 39 of 39 pages as three years.
Two of our lamps are among the 5 complete pages in the sample. That means the page is complete, not that the lamp suits every purpose.
LED pendant light
Neona HADES
150,00 EUR
Page price on 05.08.2026
Modern pendant light with an extravagant teardrop design
Creates an atmospheric mood
Reduced energy consumption thanks to the latest LED technology
180 lm
2700 K
Ra 96
3,5 W
50.000 h
IP20
From the survey: One of five complete pages in the sample. 180 lm at Ra 96 and 2700 K is precise accent lighting: above a dining table, it comes into its own as a trio or quartet.
Spotlight with a light element that rotates 360 degrees
Matt white, economical and understated in the room
For dynamic, modern lighting concepts
230 lm
3000 K
Ra 80
7 W
50.000 h
IP65
From the survey: The second complete page and the most affordable in the sample. The light element, which rotates 360 degrees, directs light exactly where it is needed.
The most useful thing from this survey is not a number but a sequence. These six values in this order, and you will know whether a lamp suits your room.
Luminous flux in lumens. For a dining table of 120 x 80 cm, 2,000 to 3,000 lm is a workable starting value. A rule of thumb, not a standard.
Colour temperature in Kelvin. 2700 K for living, from 4000 K for working. If a range such as 2200 to 6500 K is given, the light colour is adjustable. Which light colour suits when is explained in Which light colour makes you tired.
CRI or Ra. Ra 90 at the dining table, Ra 80 in the hallway. With Ra 90, also ask about R9.
Dimming. Do not believe the product name. 22 percent of the market products in our sample are, by their own statement, explicitly not dimmable, even though they are listed in dimming or LED categories.
Protection rating. Only relevant in the kitchen and bathroom, but decisive there. For the kitchen, we worked it through in Lighting concept for the kitchen.
Warranty and lifespan. A number of hours without a qualifier such as L80 is a marketing figure. The warranty period is the more reliable statement.
If you are planning the room from scratch instead of buying a single light,
lighting design is the better starting point. Our own lights with the
complete specifications can be found in
All lights and Ceiling lights.
If a value is missing, ask for it. A shop that supplies the information within a day
has it. A shop that dodges the question does not. Either way, it tells you something about the
seller, not just about the light.
Limits of this survey
88 product pages, five shops, a price range from 95 to 554 EUR and a single
product category. That cannot be extrapolated to the German lighting market, and we do not do so
anywhere. We also only analysed the visible page content: linked
PDF data sheets and energy labels were deliberately not opened. A page may therefore be more
complete than it appears in our data. We are publishing the dataset too: all 88
rows with every recorded value are available as a
CSV download, so that every number in this article
can be recalculated. Shop, brand and product names of competitors have been replaced by neutral
identifiers; we provide the version with the live source URLs on request.
One question remains open, which the same dataset can answer and which we will follow up on in the coming weeks: why efficiency in lumens per watt is practically impossible to compare. Across 65 lights with a built-in LED the median is
72.0 lm/W, but the range runs from 6.2 to 179.1 lm/W. That is a factor of 29 within a single
product category, and part of that range consists of clearly implausible figures. That is exactly the
point: published numbers are not automatically verified numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Is CRI 80 enough for the dining table, or do I need 90?
Ra 80 is the lower limit for interiors and is sufficient for a hallway, stairs or indirect ceiling light. Above the dining table, Ra 90 is worth the extra cost, because at Ra 80 saturated reds and skin tones look visibly flat. Ra is an average over eight unsaturated test colours and does not include the strong red R9. So also ask about R9.
Why do some pendant lights list no lumen value?
Two reasons. For lights with a replaceable light source, the brightness depends on the bulb you buy yourself, so the page cannot state a product value. For a built-in LED, on the other hand, it is a gap in the product description: the value exists, it just is not on the page. In our sample, 7 of 88 pages do not state a single one of the three light values.
What does 50,000 hours of lifetime really mean for an LED?
Without a qualifier, very little. A reliable specification states lumen maintenance, such as L80 at 50,000 hours: after that time the LED still delivers 80 percent of its initial luminous flux. None of the 88 pages in our sample gives such a qualified figure, and all 65 hour values are spread across just four round numbers.
Do I need a higher protection rating than IP20 in the kitchen?
Above the hob and right next to the sink, yes; in the rest of the room IP20 is enough. In our sample, all 30 published ratings from the market shops are IP20, i.e. for dry rooms. The only light with a higher protection rating is a Neona with IP65. For a bathroom or outdoor area you therefore have to filter specifically.
How many lumens do I need above a dining table?
For a table of about 120 x 80 cm, 2,000 to 3,000 lumens is a workable starting value if the pendant light is the main light source above the table. That is a rule of thumb and not a standard: room height, wall colour and whether indirect light is also present are what matter. Light walls reflect much more light than dark ones. How the light is distributed also matters. A light with a narrow beam angle works as accent light; above a table you are best off combining three or four of them into a line of light.
What is the difference between IP20, IP44 and IP65?
The first digit of the IP code stands for protection against foreign objects, the second for protection against water. IP20 is protected against touch but has no water protection, so it is intended for dry living spaces. IP44 is protected against splashing water and is considered the usual minimum in a bathroom outside the immediate vicinity of the tub and shower. IP65 is dust-tight and protected against water jets, so it is suited to outdoor areas and wet zones. In our sample, all 30 published ratings from the market shops are IP20; the only light with a higher protection rating is a Neona with IP65.
Why does my dimmer not work with a dimmable LED light?
Because dimmable does not say with which technology. A TRIAC dimmer works with leading-edge phase cutting and suits many, but not all, LED drivers; a trailing-edge dimmer works differently. If the two do not match, the light flickers, hums or only dims over part of the range. That is why the dimming technology belongs on the product page and not in the product name. If it only says dimmable with no technology, ask before you buy a wall switch to go with it.
