The CAMs (Italian acronym for “Minimum Environmental Criteria”) are a set of legislative acts passed by the Italian government. They set the minimum mandatory requirements that goods and services must have in order to guarantee to be purchasable by the public administrations, giving particular attention to sustainability and energy savings.
The “Building CAM”, approved by the ministerial decree of the 11th October 2017, regulate the procurement of design and construction services for construction, renovation and maintenance of public buildings.
| Installation type | Light source color rendering index | Light source efficiency (lm/W) |
| Interiors of housing, schools and offices | ≥ 90 | ≥ 80 |
| Warehouses | ≥ 80 | ≥ 80 |
| External spaces of relevance of buildings | ≥ 80 | ≥ 80 |
The “Public Lighting CAM”, approved by the ministerial decree of the 27th September 2017, regulate the purchasing of lighting sources and fixtures, as well as the procurement of design services in public lighting installations. In addition to minimum requirements, CAMs also assign rewarding requirements which allow to obtain a higher score during the award of the tender.
Accordingly to those CAMs, lighting fixtures are classified in relation to five different system installation types, with common and specific requirements.
| Requirement Minimum | Requirement Rewarding | |
| Parameters with common requirements for all luminaire types | ||
| LEDs life at 60000 hours | L80B10 | - |
| Warranty (years) | 5 | > 5 |
| Parameters with specific requirements for each luminaire type | ||
| Optic compartment IP | IP 65 | IP 66 |
| Connection compartment IP | IP 55 | IP 65 |
| Luminous intensity class | ≥ G*2 | ≥ G*3 |
| Impacts protection (optic compartment) | IK 06 | IK 07 |
| Surge protection | 4 kV | 6 kV |
| IPEA* (from / to) | ||
| 2017 / 2019 | B | B |
| 2020 / 2021 | A+ | - |
| 2020 / 2024 | - | A |
| 2020 / 2025 | - | - |
| 2022 / 2023 | A++ | - |
| 2024 / - | A3+ | - |
| 2025 / - | - | A+ |
| 2026 / - | - | - |
| IPEI* (from / to) | ||
| 2017 / 2020 | B | A |
| 2021 / 2025 | A | A+ |
| 2026 / - | A+ | A++ |
| Requirement Minimum | Requirement Rewarding | |
| Parameters with common requirements for all luminaire types | ||
| LEDs life at 60000 hours | L80B10 | - |
| Warranty (years) | 5 | > 5 |
| Parameters with specific requirements for each luminaire type | ||
| Optic compartment IP | IP 55 | IP 65 |
| Connection compartment IP | IP 55 | IP 65 |
| Luminous intensity class | ≥ G*2 | ≥ G*3 |
| Impacts protection (optic compartment) | IK 06 | IK 07 |
| Surge protection | 4 kV | 6 kV |
| IPEA* (From / To) | ||
| 2017 / 2019 | B | B |
| 2020 / 2021 | A+ | - |
| 2020 / 2024 | - | A |
| 2020 / 2025 | - | - |
| 2022 / 2023 | A++ | - |
| 2024 / - | A3+ | - |
| 2025 / - | - | A+ |
| 2026 / - | - | - |
| IPEI* (From / To) | ||
| 2017 / 2020 | B | A |
| 2021 / 2025 | A | A+ |
| 2026 / - | A+ | A++ |
| Requirement Minimum | Requirement Rewarding | |
| Parameters with common requirements for all luminaire types | ||
| LEDs life at 60000 hours | L80B10 | - |
| Warranty (years) | 5 | > 5 |
| Parameters with specific requirements for each luminaire type | ||
| Optic compartment IP | IP 55 | IP 65 |
| Connection compartment IP | IP 55 | IP 65 |
| Luminous intensity class | ≥ G*2 | ≥ G*3 |
| Impacts protection (optic compartment) | IK 07 | IK 08 |
| Surge protection | 4 kV | 6 kV |
| IPEA* (From / To) | ||
| 2017 / 2019 | C | B |
| 2020 / 2021 | - | - |
| 2020 / 2024 | - | A |
| 2020 / 2025 | B | - |
| 2022 / 2023 | - | - |
| 2024 / - | - | - |
| 2025 / - | - | A+ |
| 2026 / - | A | - |
| IPEI* (From / To) | ||
| 2017 / 2020 | B | A |
| 2021 / 2025 | A | A+ |
| 2026 / - | A+ | A++ |
| Requirement Minimum | Requirement Rewarding | |
| Parameters with common requirements for all luminaire types | ||
| LEDs life at 60000 hours | L80B10 | - |
| Warranty (years) | 5 | > 5 |
| Parameters with specific requirements for each luminaire type | ||
| Optic compartment IP | IP 55 | IP 65 |
| Connection compartment IP | IP 55 | IP 65 |
| Luminous intensity class | ≥ G*3 | ≥ G*4 |
| Impacts protection (optic compartment) | IK 07 | IK 08 |
| Surge protection | 4 kV | 6 kV |
| IPEA* (From / To) | ||
| 2017 / 2019 | C | B |
| 2020 / 2021 | - | - |
| 2020 / 2024 | - | A |
| 2020 / 2025 | B | - |
| 2022 / 2023 | - | - |
| 2024 / - | - | - |
| 2025 / - | - | A+ |
| 2026 / - | A | - |
| IPEI* (From / To) | ||
| 2017 / 2020 | B | A |
| 2021 / 2025 | A | A+ |
| 2026 / - | A+ | A++ |
| Requirement Minimum | Requirement Rewarding | |
| Parameters with common requirements for all luminaire types | ||
| LEDs life at 60000 hours | L80B10 | - |
| Warranty (years) | 5 | > 5 |
| Parameters with specific requirements for each luminaire type | ||
| Optic compartment IP | IP 55 | - |
| Connection compartment IP | IP 43 | - |
| Luminous intensity class | ≥ G*2 | - |
| Impacts protection (optic compartment) | - | - |
| Surge protection | 4 kV | - |
| IPEA* (From / To) | ||
| 2017 / 2019 | C | B |
| 2020 / 2021 | - | - |
| 2020 / 2024 | - | A |
| 2020 / 2025 | B | - |
| 2022 / 2023 | - | - |
| 2024 / - | - | - |
| 2025 / - | - | A+ |
| 2026 / - | A | - |
| IPEI* (From / To) | ||
| 2017 / 2020 | B | A |
| 2021 / 2025 | A | A+ |
| 2026 / - | A+ | A++ |
The ever-growing attention given by institutions and public opinion to environment related issues, has led also the lighting industry to a profound renovation.
This process was brought forth not only by the diffusion of LED technology, but also by important regulatory evolutions, which have redefined the criteria to be used to evaluate efficacy and sustainability of lighting fixtures and systems.
Lighting fixture efficacy (lm/W), in particular, has been understood to not be enough to obtain effective lighting systems, if considered alone.
To achieve effectiveness, indeed, the lumen/Watt ratio has to be considered together with the system lighting requirements; the lighting fixtures have to be evaluated for their capacity to light up “only where is needed”, without exceeding the light levels prescribed by the regulations.
Italy has given a strong contribution to this paradigmatic change by introducing, with CAM, two new energy indexes: IPEA* for fixtures and IPEI* for systems.
IPEA* (Italian acronym for “Parametric Fixture Efficacy Index”) is an alphanumeric value (ex. A++), similar to the energy class of household appliances. Is given by the result of the following ratio:
IPEA* = ηa / ηr
In which:
ηa (lm/W): fixture efficacy
ηr (lm/W): reference efficacy, dependent on fixture type and power range
IPEI* (Italian acronym for “Parametric System Efficacy Index”) is an alphanumeric value too, similar to the energy class of buildings. Is given by the result of the following ratio:
IPEI* = Dp / Dp,R
In which:
Dp: project power density, calculated according to EN 13201-5 regulation
Dp,R: reference power density, dependent on project type and lighting class.
