Lighting – Is it possible to increase CRI of LED lights/strips by using different ones together

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Several spectrometer-measurements of CRI of LEDs are available online such as for LED panels and for various LED bulbs and they show how the CRI value can hide serious issues with colour rendition. Reds and cyans are often the weakest colors (sometimes they are not lit at all, they would appear grey).

Would it be possible to couple a white LED bulb or strip with a properly dimmed red LED bulb/strip to compensate? Cyans would still be weak, but the issue is mostly with reds (and cyans are less common than reds in everyday life, think about skin, lips, blood, …) and it could improve.

Best Answer

OSRAM published an exhaustive document explaining the limitations of CRI and the case with deep red. It also describes the mixing of white LEDs with amber LEDs to obtain a high-CRI (including R9) light with high emission efficiency.

http://ledlight.osram-os.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/OSRAM-OS_WEBINAR_HighCRI_06-26-12.pdf