The Global Lighting Association (GLA) has issued a position statement on the index used to rate the colour rendering properties of light sources.
The GLA cautions against the establishment of regulatory or other minimum performance requirements for a colour rendering index (Ra) of greater than 80 for indoor lighting applications. For Europe, the GLA supports retention of legal minimum requirements on colour rendering (Ra) at the current level as defined in the EU Eco-design Regulations (EC 244/2009, EC 245/2009, EC 1194/2012). In the United States, the GLA supports the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Program’s current minimum requirement of 80 CRI.
The flexibility afforded by this allowance permits further innovation in the field of colour quality, colour acceptance and colour preference, while promoting energy efficiency and consumer satisfaction at competitive prices.
The President of the Global Lighting Association, Mr Jan Denneman, said that a higher legal minimum requirement than 80 CRI will not result in improved colour quality or acceptance, as Ra (representing colour fidelity) is only one aspect of colour quality.
“Colour saturation or ‘vividness’ is another important factor contributing to colour quality which - at least for LED lighting - is not captured in Ra”, Mr Denneman said.
For this reason the Global Lighting Association supports the need for an additional colour quality metric - for example, a colour saturation metric, in conjunction with the well-established fidelity metric Ra.
Mr Denneman said that notwithstanding significant research in recent years on colour fidelity, there currently exists no meaningful replacement for the existing CIE-standardised general colour rendering index (Ra).
The GLA’s Position Statement on Colour Rendering Index may be found athttp://www.globallightingassociation.org/library