Some simple realities about lighting:
- CRI is not an absolute measure of quality, it is a relative measurement compared to a blackbody radiator under 5000k and sunlight at 5000k and above. There is nothing natural about tungsten lightbulbs. You never see that spectrum naturally.
- CCT has infinitely way more impact on color perception than CRI. People complain about somewhat "off" reds under 80CRI 2700K. Want to see "off" colors, then compare blue-green carpet under 100cri 2700k and 80+ CRI 4000K. One makes the carpet look muddy and its not the 80CRI light.
- drop most any people into a room where they don't know the light source and they will not know if its 80CRI led, CFL, or 100 incan. Most of the claims made are side by side comparisons, but the real world is 100% one light and fully adapted eyes (to that light). I did this comparison with well over a 100 interior designers and none of them could reliably pick out the 100CRI incan let alone pick out what was supposed to be the bad CFL. I had 4 sources including one incan. Statistically at least a few should have guessed which was which but they all got it wrong and they did not pick the Incan any more reliably than random. This was decorators who should know color.
- I personally have very high CRI lighting in my kitchen at 4000k. It has been shown that at typical indoor levels 4000k is the most "white" light. In the kitchen at typical lighting levels all the colors look right which is nice for cooking.
- Bedrooms are 2700 as blue is bad for sleeping though I do have 4000k for reading.
- living room is 3000k and will convert to warm dimming when a bit cheaper.
- family/home theatre is warm dim pot lights with shields so not much light on screen
- garage, workshop, lab are all high CCT, high CRI. I like to mix 5000 and 6500k tubes. Maybe lower CRI would have worked but the high cri daylight tubes were first i tried and are a pleasure to work under for long hours.
Any time you are doing precision work including reading, higher CCT is desired as it causes the iris in your eye to close improving depth of field, and hence effectively focus and reducing eye strain. It should also be a low flicker source. Typical linear electronic fluorescent and good quality LED troffers are low flicker. Many bulbs are not.
- CRI is not an absolute measure of quality, it is a relative measurement compared to a blackbody radiator under 5000k and sunlight at 5000k and above. There is nothing natural about tungsten lightbulbs. You never see that spectrum naturally.
- CCT has infinitely way more impact on color perception than CRI. People complain about somewhat "off" reds under 80CRI 2700K. Want to see "off" colors, then compare blue-green carpet under 100cri 2700k and 80+ CRI 4000K. One makes the carpet look muddy and its not the 80CRI light.
- drop most any people into a room where they don't know the light source and they will not know if its 80CRI led, CFL, or 100 incan. Most of the claims made are side by side comparisons, but the real world is 100% one light and fully adapted eyes (to that light). I did this comparison with well over a 100 interior designers and none of them could reliably pick out the 100CRI incan let alone pick out what was supposed to be the bad CFL. I had 4 sources including one incan. Statistically at least a few should have guessed which was which but they all got it wrong and they did not pick the Incan any more reliably than random. This was decorators who should know color.
- I personally have very high CRI lighting in my kitchen at 4000k. It has been shown that at typical indoor levels 4000k is the most "white" light. In the kitchen at typical lighting levels all the colors look right which is nice for cooking.
- Bedrooms are 2700 as blue is bad for sleeping though I do have 4000k for reading.
- living room is 3000k and will convert to warm dimming when a bit cheaper.
- family/home theatre is warm dim pot lights with shields so not much light on screen
- garage, workshop, lab are all high CCT, high CRI. I like to mix 5000 and 6500k tubes. Maybe lower CRI would have worked but the high cri daylight tubes were first i tried and are a pleasure to work under for long hours.
Any time you are doing precision work including reading, higher CCT is desired as it causes the iris in your eye to close improving depth of field, and hence effectively focus and reducing eye strain. It should also be a low flicker source. Typical linear electronic fluorescent and good quality LED troffers are low flicker. Many bulbs are not.
Last edited:
Every 15 minutes would give a different color anyway (clouds, atmosphere, etc.) We beat that to death in every other thread. We're talking about a simple bedroom here. What is "right" and "wrong" is pretty obvious to most people, regardless of the reference. We won't be moving this bedroom outside anytime soon. The furniture we picked out in the showroom, while unloading outside, and under incandescent pretty much looked as it should. Under the CREE, nope.
