Colour appearance
According to BRE’s The essential guide to retail lighting:
Colour appearance refers to the ‘…visual sensation correlated with the ‘warmth’ or ‘coolness’ of the light emitted by a lamp. The metric used to characterise the colour appearance of the light emitted by a light source is the correlated colour temperature (CCT), expressed in Kelvin (K). Warm white light is produced by lamps having a colour temperature below 3,000 K (reddish hues), whereas 4,000 K and above (bluish) is cool and cold white light. The colour appearance is quite separate from the colour rendering of the lamp.’
Colour rendering is ‘The ability of a light source to show surface colours as they should be, usually in comparison with a tungsten or daylight source. Measured on the colour rendering index (CRI) scale. A value of 0 means it is impossible to discern colours at all, and a score of 100 means no colour distortion. For most indoor lighting applications a value of at least 80 is recommended.’
For more, see Colour Rendering Index CRI.
Colour gamut is ‘A measure of how colourful a scene will appear under a given light source. Sources with a high colour gamut generally make objects appear brighter and more colourful.’
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- Colour temperature.
- Colour Rendering Index CRI.
- Daylight benefits in healthcare buildings.
- Daylight factor.
- Daylight lighting systems.
- Dichroic reflector.
- Discharge lamp.
- Extra-low voltage lamps.
- General lighting v task lighting.
- Illuminance.
- Lamps.
- Lamp efficacy.
- Light pollution.
- Lighting.
- Lighting energy numeric indicator LENI.
- Lighting of construction sites.
- Luminaire efficacy.
- Rights to light.
- The Anatomy of Colour.
Featured articles and news
Great British Energy install solar on school and NHS sites
200 schools and 200 NHS sites to get solar systems as first project of the newly formed Labout government initiative.
600 million for 60,000 more skilled construction workers
Announced by Treasury ahead of the Spring Statement.
The restoration of the novelist’s birthplace in Eastwood.
Life Critical Fire Safety External Wall System LCFS EWS
Breaking down what is meant by this now often used term.
PAC report on the Remediation of Dangerous Cladding
Recommendations on workforce, transparency, support, insurance, funding, fraud and mismanagement.
New towns, expanded settlements and housing delivery
Modular inquiry asks if new towns and expanded settlements are an effective means of delivering housing.
Building Engineering Business Survey Q1 2025
Survey shows growth remains flat as skill shortages and volatile pricing persist.
Construction contract awards remain buoyant
Infrastructure up but residential struggles.
Home builders call for suspension of Building Safety Levy
HBF with over 100 home builders write to the Chancellor.
CIOB Apprentice of the Year 2024/2025
CIOB names James Monk a quantity surveyor from Cambridge as the winner.
Warm Homes Plan and existing energy bill support policies
Breaking down what existing policies are and what they do.
Treasury responds to sector submission on Warm Homes
Trade associations call on Government to make good on manifesto pledge for the upgrading of 5 million homes.
A tour through Robotic Installation Systems for Elevators, Innovation Labs, MetaCore and PORT tech.
A dynamic brand built for impact stitched into BSRIA’s building fabric.
BS 9991:2024 and the recently published CLC advisory note
Fire safety in the design, management and use of residential buildings. Code of practice.