Wanting Residential LED Downlighting, Made-In-USA

 Google this: What manufacturer is doing innovation in Made-In-USA "residential" LED downlighting?

Learn that there is no Residential LED lights manufacturing in USA. Until recently there was Ilumigreen in Michigan. This is bad news.

Ilumigreen.

I have a half-dozen in my museum collection.

Lights from American Lighting seem to be interesting.

AMERICAN LIGHTING INC.

11775 EAST 45TH AVENUE. DENVER, CO 80239

Main: 800.880.1180

Customer Service: 983.900.2357

Monday - Friday, 8am - 5pm MST

I have made my phone call to Customer Service and find that these lights are not made in USA. Somewhere in Asia.  They mount to junction boxes with screws through the board backplate with keyways that do admit bug littering of the lens. If screws passed through round holes, that would be a very big product improvement. I will persist in now trying to buy a sample via Amazon, as instructed. I won't bother to buy, but wonder whether any old lights-buyer-from-Asia, has a market via Amazon. And, the answer is Yes! Bad news for Amazon.

https://americanlighting.com/products/downlighting/surface-mount

Luminance if 4" lens: 650/8107 = 0.080 Lumens per sq millimeter. TOO MUCH GLARE. Probably made worse vs. edge lights by concentrated diodes not obscured by the thin lens.

(Please see the table that follows.)

Luminance if 6" lens: 1050/12350 = 0.085 Lumens per sq millimeter. TOO MUCH GLARE. Probably made worse vs. edge lights by concentrated diodes not obscured by the thin lens.

Luminance if 5" lens: 750/12688 = 0.059 Lumens per sq millimeter. Maybe OK. This is better glare than similar-appearance HALO SMX and without some HALO silliness. Could I buy and try this, via Amazon?

$73.46 each

Far too expensive. Not a realistic product-for-sale.

Shipping from store Lighting Jungle, in Las Vegas. Selling tacky old stuff. It seems to have ugly thickness.

Shop at PLATT ELECTRIC SUPPLY

Lights are non-glaring if luminance does not exceed 0.05 lumens per square millimeter. 

With edge lights, lens lumens output at fixed diode power increases in proportion to diameter. A buyer might expect lumens output to increase in proportion to lens area, that is, as the square of lens diameter.

Trying Cooper HALO SMX Edgeless LED Edge Lights, Without Buying Any

I am informed by dates of Home Depot customer reviews that SMX  families of Cooper HALO Edgeless LED Edge Lights have been available online at homedepot.com, since December 2024. At this writing there 3,939 Home Depot customer reviews, averaging 4.6 stars. 

Tunable White: Field-SeleCCTable color temperatures (2700K, 3000K, 3500K, 4000K, and 5000K) and Dim-to-Warm options that transition from 3000K to 1800K, perfectly mimicking incandescent lighting.

The only useful color selection is in close proximity to 3000°K. 5000°K is absolutely useless. 1800°K? How could that be useful?

I am interested only in circular shapes. 

Dimensioned side views are presented, including need-to-know dimensions, for four of the five sizes offered.

SMX 4

SMX 6

SMX 8

SMX 18

There is rotate-to-mate engagement with a mounting plate upon a junction box. Be wary that very large lights centrally captured, may not seat firmly on the ceiling plane.

Cooper HALO SMX Series Edgeless Surface Mount LED Downlights (More details are copied from the offered Specifications.)

The HALO SMX families brightness choices are very much not related to the illumination potential at diameters greater than 5 inches. Luminance of 0.05 lumens per square millimeter is borderline comfortable to gaze upon, not glaring. It would make sense to offer that luminance for all families, and to let lesser illuminance be achieved always by dimmer control. There can not be a demand for light power control by climbing upon ladders to reposition luminaire control switches upon the backside (top) of the luminaire. Dimmers do the job, and that is that.

Lumens output at fixed diode power, in proportion to diode tape circumference if 633 lumens at SMX 4:

Perhaps Cooper/ HALO might innovate usefully against edge light limitations at large diameters.  Get more lumens out of LED edge lights by adding luminaire depth, with multiple diffuser lenses and diode strips. Just maintain a luminance limit of 0.05 Lm/mm2. Or, teach that bigger luminaires don’t add up nicely in illuminating a room; then prefer better light distribution with many smaller lights.