Guide · Fixtures & Rebates

Find DLC-qualified fixtures that qualify for rebates

Utility rebates can cover a meaningful slice of a lighting retrofit — but only if the fixture is on the active DLC qualified-products list. Here's how to shortlist rebate-eligible fixtures in VibeLux without leaving the platform.

The DesignLights Consortium (DLC) maintains the qualified-products list most North American utilities use to decide which horticultural LEDs earn a rebate. The core requirement is efficacy — grow light per watt, measured as PPE in µmol/J — and the catch most buyers miss is that fixtures get delisted over time. Buying a fixture that was qualified two years ago but isn't today usually means no check from the utility. VibeLux's fixture tooling is built around that reality.

1. Start from the DLC catalog, not a spec sheet

VibeLux bundles the DesignLights Consortium horticultural qualified-products list — 2,400+ fixtures with their reported PPE (photosynthetic photon efficacy, µmol/J), PPF output, wattage, input voltage, dimming methods, THD, power factor, and spectral flux by band. Browse it at /fixtures or inside the designer's fixture library. Because the data comes from the QPL itself, you're comparing the numbers a utility program will actually look at.

2. Keep "Active QPL only" switched on

Roughly 45% of the rows in the bundled QPL carry a delist date — fixtures that were once qualified but have since been dropped from the active list. Most utility rebate programs only pay on fixtures that are on the active QPL at the time of purchase. The designer's fixture library ships with an "Active QPL only" toggle that is on by default and tells you exactly how many delisted models it's hiding; delisted fixtures that do appear are labeled "DLC Delisted" rather than wearing the qualified badge.

3. Filter and sort by efficacy

Sort the library by efficacy to surface the highest-µmol/J fixtures first, and use the wattage and PPF range filters to narrow to your fixture class (a 4×4 flower top-light and a propagation bar are different searches). If your utility's program keys off DLC's higher performance classification, the THD filter matters too — the library includes a "THD under 20%" toggle for that check, alongside power-factor data.

4. Compare finalists side by side

Toggle two to four shortlisted fixtures into compare mode. The comparison view lines up PPE, PPF, wattage, THD, power factor, and spectrum, and annotates the best value in each row — so "highest efficacy" and "lowest THD" are visible at a glance instead of buried in a table. There's also a standalone comparison page at /fixtures/compare you can share with a colleague.

5. Sanity-check qualification and estimate the rebate

Two calculators close the loop. The DLC Compliance Checker (Starter plan and up) checks a fixture's spec-sheet numbers against the DLC efficacy thresholds — useful when you're considering a fixture that isn't in the catalog yet. The Rebate Calculator (free) estimates your rebate from watts saved and your utility's $/W rate, then rolls that into payback months and five-year savings. Both are estimators: the active QPL listing and your utility program's own rules are always the final authority.

Honest limits

VibeLux's catalog is a bundled snapshot of the DLC horticultural QPL and is refreshed periodically, not live-synced — before you cut a purchase order, confirm the model on DLC's own QPL and with your utility's program administrator. Rebate amounts, per-watt rates, and paperwork requirements vary by program; the Rebate Calculator estimates, it doesn't promise.