The short version
Neither source's properties are assumed from the technology. Warm-up, lifetime, efficiency and form are recorded properties of the named source or stated inputs of the design. Neither source is the right answer for every product; the comparison is made on the figures recorded for the sources a design actually names.
Wavelength: one line versus a chosen band
For the lamp side, the wavelength figure is the one recorded for the named lamp type; for the LED side, the band is named in the design's own specification. Jason's published chip range runs 255–340 nm; 255, 265, 275 and 280 nm are four of the named bands inside it, so the band is part of what an LED enquiry states.
Start-up and duty cycle
Start-up and switching are recorded properties of the named source: what warm-up period is recorded for a lamp, what restriking does to its recorded life, and what switching and dimming the named LED model is rated for are figures to establish per model, not properties to assume from the technology. For a product whose disinfection stage cycles — an air purifier responding to demand, a tank module on a hygiene cycle, a cabinet product on a door event — the enquiry states the cycle the stage must serve, and asks for those figures against it.
Lifetime and output maintenance
Lifetime is a recorded property of the named source in both technologies: what rated life is recorded for a lamp type, and what lifetime basis is recorded for an LED model — and the conditions each figure was recorded under — are established per model in the enquiry exchange. Jason's company news, for example, describes its mass-produced 10 mW product line as rated at 10,000 hours — a company-published figure. In both technologies the honest figure is the one quoted at the product's actual operating point, not the headline number.
Efficiency: the figures and their conditions
What an LED device supplies is a per-model figure, recorded under stated conditions: ask what output and efficiency figures are documented for the named model, at the drive point and temperature the product will run, in the enquiry exchange. The lamp side of the comparison is likewise a figure recorded for the named lamp type, with its own conditions attached.
Form factor and optics
Form is a stated input of the design: the enclosure dimensions the stage must fit, and the emitter layout the design assumes, are stated in the enquiry. Which form a named LED model takes — and what layout it supports — is confirmed per model in the exchange.
Mercury, breakage and regulation
Mercury content is a stated topic of the redesign brief: the incumbent lamp type is named in it, and any market or tender requirement on mercury content that the finished product must evidence is named alongside it. Those requirements belong to the finished product's compliance file, not to the component catalogue.
Total cost, honestly framed
Designers re-specifying an existing lamp product should also price the enclosure changes, and state the duty the product will run — continuous or cycled — in the enquiry, since the specification answers against that duty.
Where each belongs
Where the choice is LED, name the band, the form and the duty in the enquiry. Jason supplies the LED side of this comparison — chips, packages and modules.
The LED side, in this catalogue
The LED side of this comparison, as this catalogue publishes it: chips from 255 to 340 nm in more than 1,000 standard models, with the main production bands at 260–320 nm; SMD packages in the 3535 and 6868 families, eight catalogued models between them; and six module products across water, air and surface. The company's UV LED line has run on its own MOCVD equipment since 2010, with 280 nm the band that line first produced, and its news reports a 1000 mW-class 275 nm device developed on the base of its mass-produced 10 mW line. Its published application cases fall in three categories — water purification, air purification and surface disinfection — and its wavelength keywords attach phototherapy to the 310 nm band, the only application of that kind named in the catalogue.
Thermal behaviour and environment
Thermal behaviour is likewise a recorded property of the named source. Ask what thermal data is recorded for the model in question — the conditions its output is quoted at, and the thermal path or heatsink figures its documentation carries — and read the thermal figures recorded for the model against the enclosure, duct or cabinet the product will run in. Both lamp and LED sources belong in the design review on those recorded terms, stated in the enquiry rather than assumed from catalogue output. The company behind the LED side was founded in 2001 to build GaN MOCVD equipment; its first system followed in 2002, and in 2010 it built its UV LED production line on its own equipment.
A note on comparing fairly
A comparison can be rigged by condition mismatch: a lamp quoted at its stabilised best against an LED quoted at a punishing drive, or the reverse. State the conditions behind each figure — drive point, temperature, duty — in the enquiry, so both sides of the comparison rest on figures recorded for the named sources.
Stating a redesign brief
A redesign brief states the lamp type and wattage being replaced, the enclosure dimensions the new stage must fit, the duty cycle the product runs, the dose target the stage must deliver, and the service interval the product is designed around. With those inputs stated, the comparison between the incumbent lamp stage and an LED stage is made on the product's own figures, and the band and form for the LED side are established per model in the enquiry exchange.
The figures the LED side confirms
For the LED side of a redesign, the figures are per-model: the band, the output at the product's sustained drive point, the lifetime basis recorded for the device class, and the documents that record them. State the drive point, the duty and the thermal arrangement the product provides, and ask which of those figures are documented for the named model and on what measurement basis. The enclosure side is stated the same way: the envelope the new stage must fit, the service access the finished product allows, and the service interval the design assumes, so both sides of the comparison rest on figures the suppliers have actually recorded rather than brochure values.
Quantities and programme timing complete the brief: the volumes the redesign will run at and the dates the programme is planned against, so the confirmation answers the production programme itself rather than a nominal one, and the lamp decision and the module decision are made against the same brief.