How important is CRI for commercial spaces? The experts at V-TAC provide the answer.
Sales posters and coupons are great, but if your commercial client is serious about driving sales, CRI is a term you must understand.
CRI stands for Colour Rendering Index and it measures the quality and accuracy of artificial light at rendering colours. The CRI is measured on a scale of 0 – 100 and compares a light source against natural sunlight to indicate how closely it can replicate the true colours of an object. Natural sunlight and incandescent lighting have a CRI of 100, while most common light sources have a CRI of between 80 – 90.
What do you lose by using low CRI lighting?
Low CRI lamps can deliver dull washed-out colours, sickly skin tones and lifeless eyes – failing to accurately portray a product to a viewer. With high-CRI lamps, colours pop, textures stand out and finishes have a deep lustre to them.
A high CRI is especially crucial to colour critical applications where presentation, colour accuracy, and visual appeal is important. High CRI lighting can make food and produce in a grocery store look appealing, highlight clothing at a retail outlet and make a house on the market look vibrant and homely. Indeed, it is often considered the fourth element of good design, as it turns colours and textures into a vivid palette of finishes.
Equally important to finishes and colours are how an individual looks under a lamp. High-CRI lighting, specifically R9 and R13 values, produce more natural skin tones with better depth. CRI values of 80 and above effectively portray colours and finishes, but if the most accurate rendering is necessary, lighting with values of 90 and above is recommended.
What are the benefits for the workplace?
The CRI of a light source will show the finer details in objects. In shipping yards, factories, warehouses and other industrial facilities, the ability to clearly see finer details is extremely important. Aside from the obvious safety regulations, workers can easily see the markings on boxes, manuals, containers and other objects.
Simply put, lamps with the right CRI levels provide the most productive lighting levels for a working environment, as opposed to orange or monochromatic blue-white light output. The variety of light distribution patterns available allow facilities managers to maximise fixture spacing, lighting levels and ensure uniformity. As a result, operations costs are reduced while the safety, efficiency, and quality of light in the workplace is improved.
In the era of incandescent lighting, CRI was not an issue due to its superior colour rendering. However, poor energy efficiency led to incandescents being phased out for more energy-efficient options, like fluorescent lighting and LED lighting sources.
LEDs have been lauded for their energy efficiency but they also boast other benefits like a longer lifespan, absence of hazardous materials and reduced cost of maintenance. Modern LEDs such as V-TAC’s range of high-CRI lighting solutions now boast colour rendering levels in the range of the 90s, at a fraction of the energy consumption of fluorescent lamps.
Download a copy of the V-TAC lighting catalogue here.
