White lighting for residential applications

The lighting industry relies on colour-rendering index (CRI) and correlated colour temperature (CCT) to communicate the colour properties of light sources. While advances have been made in recent years to develop new metrics for colour rendering, not much attention has been given to the validity or utility of CCT for communicating the appearance of illumination. Recently, it was shown that a wide range of chromaticities can appear ‘white’ or with minimal perceived ‘tint’. Importantly, these chromaticities do not follow the line of blackbody radiation, the reference for CCT. The present study builds on this previous research to determine whether ‘white’ illumination is preferred in simulated residential applications. Results presented here support the hypothesis that people prefer ‘white’ or minimally ‘tinted’ sources of illumination.