Proper Lighting Will Make Your Members Look Better.
And isn’t looking better why they come to your business?
There is a characteristic of lighting known as “color rendering” that describes how well a light source shows colors and is related to the spectrum of light contained in that source. There is a whole bunch of science involved in trying to determine this attribute but to make things simple, the lighting industry uses something called the Color Rendering Index (CRI) to allow comparisons between various light sources with a scale of 0-100, where 100 is the highest rating.The index is calculated using “R-values” that measure the light’s effect on individual colors. For a person to look healthy the important values are those that highlight skin tones as shown below.
LED lighting that is now ubiquitous and in earlier days, fluorescent lighting, are notorious for not containing enough red (R9) to make people look healthy. You have probably heard of people complaining about the lighting making them look sick – this is likely the culprit. Red is important because no matter the tone of skin it is the reflection of the blood flowing through it that makes us look healthy. Sick people often look pale because of reduced blood flow or lack of red blood cells. On the other hand, if the lighting lacks red (has a low R9 value) then healthy people may appear sick. Not exactly the look your members are hoping for at a fitness or wellness club!