Minimum color quality standards are necessary, because the light sources most efficient at producing lumens are impractical for use in architectural lighting due to poor color rendition. Thus, accurate measures of color rendition and accompanying performance criteria are essential for helping technology developers and users balance tradeoffs between energy efficiency and lighting quality. Setting higher color-rendition criteria while maintaining use of CRI (e.g., CRI = 90) may filter out some unacceptable light sources, but also filters out many highly desirable light sources and requires a greater tradeoff with energy efficiency. In contrast, specifying color rendition using TM-30 Rf, Rg, and Rcs,h1 has been shown to be effective for differentiating desirable sources while maintaining flexibility for technology development and energy efficiency.
Revised: September 19, 2019 |
Published: June 11, 2018