COLOUR FIDELITY AND ILLUMINANCE TRADE-OFF: TESTING LIGHTING VALUES

Abstract

The higher the colour fidelity of a light source, the lower its luminous efficacy of radiation because the light source spectrum must deviate from V(λ) to deliver the higher fidelity. Two experiments probed the trade-off between energy efficiency and colour quality. Experiment 1 required participants to simultaneously view pairs of light sources differing in colour fidelity, at either a higher (346 lx) or lower (277 lx) illuminance. Participants performed a timed reading task and judged the colour appearance of the pair. There were no effects of illuminance, but larger colour fidelity differences between the light sources in the pair correlated with lower appearance judgements. Experiment 2 simulated the effect of light sources on defined reflectance spectra. The results showed that improvements of colour fidelity above what is often considered satisfactory can yield more satisfying illumination while using the same amount of power.