LED Lighting for United States Makers: A 120 lm/W Rule Is Set for July 2028 and a Senate Bill Would Void It, While a 277 V Luminaire Needs the 500 V Rung, Where 50 Walsin Class II Parts Reach 100 nF and 1 Is on the Shelf

LED lighting for United States makers faces a rule and a ladder. A rule sets a floor above 120 lm/W from July 2028, and a Senate bill would void it. On 277 V we counted Walsin’s 500 V class II capacitors: 50 reach 100 nF, and 1 is on our shelf.

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Venatech Limited, an authorised Walsin distributor in Hong Kong, holds the Walsin Technology (Walsin) MLCC export of 24,026 rows, 23,601 of them distinct part numbers. This post is for a design engineer or buyer at a United States maker of LED lamps, drivers or commercial luminaires who wants to know what a Hong Kong source can offer on the high-voltage side of a driver. Every part number below is real and every count is ours. It gives no legal, safety-agency or customs advice. Where it states a rule or a market fact, it names the source, its date and the day we read it.

Where does the United States 120 lm/W lamp rule stand?

It is final, due in 2028, and under attack in Congress. The Department of Energy’s April 2024 rule raised the efficiency floor for general service lamps from 45 to above 120 lumens per watt, with compliance from 25 July 2028, and on 30 September 2026 the Senate Energy Committee reported S.1568, the LIT Act, which would void it. We read both sources on 22 October 2026.

The Department of Energy announcement is dated 12 April 2024. Inside Lighting (2 October 2026) records that the committee ordered the bill reported without amendment on 30 September 2026, that DOE endorsed the bill at a hearing on 16 September 2026, and that NEMA and the American Lighting Association had written on 15 September 2026 warning of business uncertainty. It adds that DOE cannot weaken a standard on its own because of anti-backsliding rules, so a change needs Congress, and that passage would likely need 60 Senate votes, which it calls unlikely without Democratic support. A House companion has not moved since May 2025.

Our view, labelled as ours: a floor that rises or disappears leaves a lamp maker planning two futures, and the high-voltage passives in the driver do not change in either. The sources do not say that.

Which capacitor voltage rung does a 120 V or 277 V lighting line need?

The 120 V line fits the 250 V rung and the 277 V line needs the 500 V rung. A 120 V line peaks at 169.7 V and a 277 V line at 391.7 V, so an 80 percent working limit asks for at least 212 V and 490 V, which is the 250 V rung and the 500 V rung. A 450 V part runs at 87 percent on 277 V.

The service voltages are from Carl Chermak’s Distribution Services and Service Types (North American Services, Tescometering, 22 July 2024). It lists single-phase 120/240 V and three-phase 277/480 V wye service, and says 277 V is the phase-to-neutral voltage of the 480 V wye. The peak figures are our arithmetic, 1.414 times the line voltage, and the 80 percent limit is our assumption, not a rule. Your derating policy is your engineer’s decision. Whether a ceramic sits behind the rectifier or across the line is a design and safety question this post does not answer.

Line	Peak (ours)	Peak divided by 0.8	Rung	Class II parts at the rung	Of those, 100 nF or more	Stocked class II lines at the rung
120 V	169.7 V	212 V	250 V	500	110	21
277 V	391.7 V	490 V	500 V	346	50	12
277 V plus 10 percent	430.9 V	539 V	630 V	383	62	24

The last row adds 10 percent to the line voltage as our illustration, because a driver on a weak or surging feeder sees more than nominal. It moves the answer from 500 V to 630 V. The 450 V rung, with 24 class II parts and 1 stocked line, falls between and fits neither.

How many Walsin class II parts reach 100 nF at 500 V and 630 V?

Fifty at 500 V and 62 at 630 V, and the shelf holds 1 and 2. We parsed the Rated Voltage and Capacitance fields of all 23,601 distinct MLCC part numbers: class II parts rated 500 V number 346, of which 50 reach 100 nF and only 2 reach 1 µF; at 630 V there are 383, of which 62 reach 100 nF and 5 reach 1 µF.

Class II here means X5R, X6S, X7R, X7S, X7T and X8R. The export gives no DC bias curve, and a class II capacitance falls with voltage, so the 100 nF figure is a nameplate value, not what the part holds at 391.7 V. Our post on MLCC DC bias and voltage derating explains the effect, and the datasheet is where your number lives.

We have not seen this counted anywhere: of the 50 class II parts at 500 V that reach 100 nF, 1 is stocked, 1812B104K501; of the 62 at 630 V, 2 are, 1812B104K631 and SH55B684K631. The 500 V parts above 100 nF sit in 1210, 1812, 2220, 2225 and 1825, and none is in 0805 or 1206, where the 500 V ladder tops out at 33 nF and 56 nF.

Which Walsin parts cross a 100 nF, 500 V driver capacitor?

One matches and is stocked, and the rest differ in case, voltage or shelf. Say your board has a 100 nF, 500 V, X7R capacitor and you want to know what Walsin offers. These are the real parts nearest to it.

Walsin part	Family	Case	Capacitance	Rated voltage	Thickness (export)	In stock 23 September 2026	Your incumbent	Match / mismatch (100 nF, 500 V, X7R)
1812B104K501	Middle to high voltage	1812	100 nF, ±10%	500 V	2.00 ± 0.20 mm	Yes	___	Match on value, tolerance and voltage; check case
1210B104K501	Middle to high voltage	1210	100 nF, ±10%	500 V	2.00 ± 0.20 mm	No	___	Match on value and voltage, mismatch on case and shelf
SH32B104K501	Soft termination SH	1210	100 nF, ±10%	500 V	2.00 ± 0.20 mm	No	___	Match on value and voltage; mismatch on termination if yours is standard
1812B104K631	Middle to high voltage	1812	100 nF, ±10%	630 V	2.00 ± 0.20 mm	Yes	___	Mismatch on voltage (higher), same case
1210B274K451	Middle to high voltage	1210	270 nF, ±10%	450 V	not checked	Yes	___	Mismatch: 450 V is below the 490 V we calculated, and capacitance differs

Leave the incumbent column for your own part. Confirm tolerance, thickness and termination against the Walsin datasheet, and read our post on soft termination MLCC for what the SH series changes.

What do we hold in stock, and what do we not hold for lighting?

Twelve lines at 500 V, twenty-four at 630 V, and no lighting documents. We counted our stock list as at 23 September 2026, 1,125 part numbers: 12 class II lines are rated 500 V and 24 are rated 630 V, and none of the 28 Walsin datasheets we hold, 451 pages, contains the words LED, luminaire, lamp, lighting or driver.

A part on this list is not a lighting-qualified part, and we make no safety-agency, flicker, surge-immunity or lifetime claim for any of them. The stocked 500 V lines include 0805B102K501, 0805B103K501 and 1206B102K501 at 1 nF to 10 nF, which suit small snubber and filter values, not a 100 nF bus. The stock list is a dated snapshot and moves. The ready stock page shows what is held in Hong Kong now, and we quote part-number counts, never piece counts.

How can Venatech help a United States lighting maker?

By crossing the capacitor you have already chosen, stating the differences, and telling you what is missing. Venatech Limited is an authorised Walsin distributor in Hong Kong. Walsin is our only authorised line, and the other lines we supply are Stackpole and Viking.

• Cross-reference. Paste your incumbent number into the free cross-reference tool, which decodes 18 manufacturers’ part numbers across 800,000+ crossable parts, and read each Walsin candidate with match and mismatch stated field by field.
• BOM check. Upload a driver bill of materials to /bom/ and have each line checked against the same engine.
• Ready stock. The ready stock list is a Hong Kong snapshot dated 23 September 2026, never live-synced.
• Service. Hong Kong-based, small lots, cross-referencing help, and a quote requested through the site. Our address is Unit 207, 2/F, Sun Ling Plaza, 30 On Kui Street, Fanling, N.T., Hong Kong, telephone (852) 2628 4777.

A worked example from our own export: a 100 nF, 500 V, X7R driver capacitor maps to 1812B104K501, which is stocked, and to 1210B104K501 and SH32B104K501 in a smaller 1210 case, which are factory orders. Our MLCC range lists the families. Confirm against both datasheets and qualify in your own circuit.

The short version

The April 2024 DOE rule sets a floor above 120 lm/W from 25 July 2028, and the LIT Act that would void it was reported on 30 September 2026. A 277 V line asks for 490 V at an 80 percent limit, so the 500 V rung, where 50 class II parts reach 100 nF and 1 is stocked. None of the 28 datasheets we hold names a lamp or a luminaire.

Send us the high-voltage capacitor from one driver and we will return the Walsin parts with the differences stated. If the rule is voided and your 277 V design is unchanged, which of your capacitors was ever tied to the rule?

Sources

Fetched 22 October 2026. The regulatory and market statements above are taken from these pages; the part data comes from our own Walsin export and stock list.

• U.S. Department of Energy, “DOE Finalizes Efficiency Standards for Lightbulbs to Save Americans Billions on Household Energy Bills”, 12 April 2024: https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-finalizes-efficiency-standards-lightbulbs-save-americans-billions-household-energy
• Inside Lighting, “Incandescent Comeback Clears Hurdle, Draws Pushback”, 2 October 2026: https://inside.lighting/news/26-10/incandescent-comeback-clears-hurdle-draws-pushback
• Inside Lighting, “DOE Seeks New Path for Future Light Bulb Standards”, 6 July 2026: https://inside.lighting/news/26-07/doe-seeks-new-path-future-light-bulb-standards
• Carl Chermak, “Distribution Services and Service Types”, North American Services (Tescometering), 22 July 2024: https://www.tescometering.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Distribution-Services-and-Service-Types_Final-Carl-C-7-22-24.pdf

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Frequently asked questions

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