I get it. You’re pricing a lighting upgrade for a commercial building, and the quote difference between a quality Australian-compliant LED panel and an imported budget alternative is substantial. Maybe 40-60% less for the cheap option. That’s a big number when you’re fitting out an entire floor.

But that upfront price comparison is misleading. The total cost of ownership tells a very different story, and I’ve seen enough failed installations to feel strongly about this one.

What “Cheap” Actually Means

Let me be specific about what I’m talking about. The Australian commercial lighting market has been flooded with low-cost LED panels, primarily from manufacturers in southern China, that are sold through online marketplaces or grey-market distributors. You can find 600x600mm flat panels for $25-35 each — roughly a third of the price of an equivalent product from a reputable manufacturer.

These products aren’t necessarily defective. Many of them work perfectly well on day one. The problems emerge over time and across multiple dimensions that don’t show up on a purchase order.

Hidden Cost 1: Premature Failure and Replacement

Quality commercial LED panels from established manufacturers are typically rated for 50,000-70,000 hours to L70 (the point at which output drops to 70% of initial levels). Budget panels often claim similar figures, but the testing behind those claims is questionable.

The issue is thermal management. Cheap panels use thinner aluminium housings with less effective heat dissipation. The LED chips run hotter, and heat is the primary killer of LED longevity. I’ve seen budget panels in ceiling voids with ambient temperatures around 35-40 degrees Celsius (standard for Australian commercial ceilings) start showing visible lumen depreciation within 12-18 months. By three years, they’re noticeably dimmer than adjacent quality panels installed at the same time.

The practical outcome: you’re looking at a full replacement cycle every 4-5 years instead of 8-10 years. That second purchase, plus labour for removal and reinstallation, wipes out the initial saving entirely.

Hidden Cost 2: Electrical Safety and Compliance

Every electrical product sold in Australia for commercial use must comply with AS/NZS standards and carry an appropriate regulatory compliance mark. For LED luminaires, that means compliance with AS/NZS 60598 (luminaire safety) and relevant EMC standards.

Many budget imports either don’t have valid Australian compliance marks, or carry marks that are fraudulent. The RCM (Regulatory Compliance Mark) that should appear on compliant products is sometimes counterfeited on products that have never been tested.

Here’s where it gets expensive. If a fire or electrical incident is traced back to a non-compliant luminaire, your insurance claim can be denied. Full stop. Insurers in Australia are increasingly scrutinising electrical installations, and a building full of non-compliant light fittings is an underwriter’s reason to decline coverage.

Beyond insurance, there’s the liability question. Under Australian Consumer Law, the person who installs non-compliant electrical equipment in a commercial building takes on significant liability. If you’re the building owner or facility manager who approved the purchase, you’re exposed.

Hidden Cost 3: Colour Consistency and Flicker

Two specifications separate quality LED panels from cheap ones more than any others: colour consistency and flicker performance.

Colour consistency is measured by the MacAdam ellipse step — a smaller number means tighter colour matching between panels. Quality manufacturers specify 3-step MacAdam consistency, meaning panels installed side by side will look virtually identical. Budget panels often deliver 5-7 step consistency, and sometimes worse. In a large open office with rows of panels, the variation is visible. Some panels appear slightly green, others slightly pink. It looks unprofessional and is almost impossible to fix short of replacing panels until you get a matching batch.

Flicker is measured as percent flicker and flicker index. The IEEE standard 1789 recommends less than 8% flicker at frequencies below 200Hz for environments where people work for extended periods. Quality panels with decent drivers easily meet this. Budget panels with cheap, non-dimmable drivers can produce 30-40% flicker at 100Hz — not visible as obvious strobing, but enough to cause headaches, eye strain, and fatigue in sensitive individuals.

This is a real workplace health issue. If employees are complaining about headaches under new lighting, flicker is often the culprit. The cost of investigating complaints, potentially replacing fittings, and managing workers’ compensation claims for chronic headaches far exceeds the initial saving.

Hidden Cost 4: Warranty That Isn’t Worth the Paper

A five-year warranty from a manufacturer with no Australian presence is functionally worthless. If the company doesn’t have an Australian entity, ABN, and local stock, pursuing a warranty claim means shipping products overseas at your expense, waiting months for a response, and often being told the failure “isn’t covered.”

Quality manufacturers with Australian operations — and there are several, including both local brands and international companies with established AU subsidiaries — provide warranties backed by local stock and responsive support teams. When a panel fails under warranty, you get a replacement from a local warehouse within days, not a runaround that lasts months.

Hidden Cost 5: No Lighting Design Support

This one’s underappreciated. When you buy from a reputable manufacturer, you generally get access to IES photometric files, lighting design support, and technical specification sheets that allow proper design. Your lighting designer can model the exact product in DIALux or AGi32 and verify compliance with Australian standards before a single fitting is installed.

Budget products often lack accurate photometric data. The IES files, if they exist at all, may be generic or fabricated. This means your lighting design is based on guesswork, and the installed result may not meet the lux levels or uniformity ratios required by AS/NZS 1680.

Discovering this after installation means either living with substandard lighting or adding more fittings — which costs more than specifying correctly from the start.

What to Look For Instead

You don’t need to buy the most expensive panel on the market. But here’s a sensible minimum specification for Australian commercial installations:

• Valid RCM mark from a recognised certification body (not self-declared)
• L70 rating of 50,000+ hours at an ambient temperature of 35 degrees Celsius or higher
• Colour consistency of 3-step MacAdam or better
• Flicker less than 8% per IEEE 1789 (ask for the test report)
• Manufacturer with an Australian presence — an ABN, local warehouse, and local technical support
• Published IES photometric data available for download
• Minimum 5-year warranty backed by an Australian entity

Products meeting all of these criteria typically cost $55-90 per 600x600mm panel, depending on specification and volume. That’s more than the $25-35 budget option, but when you factor in the hidden costs above, it’s almost always cheaper over a 10-year lifecycle.

The Short Version

Cheap LED panels save money on the purchase order and cost more everywhere else. Premature failure, compliance risk, insurance exposure, poor visual quality, useless warranties, and inadequate design data all add up. For commercial installations where lighting runs 10+ hours a day, 250+ days a year, buying quality isn’t a luxury — it’s the financially rational choice.

Spend the money where it matters. Your building occupants, your maintenance budget, and your insurance underwriter will all thank you.