New benefit metrics for more valuable lighting

Abstract

Lighting is installed for the benefits of seeing. Lighting manufacturers and regulators primarily focus on two formal metrics for providing these benefits, the lumen and color rendering index (CRI). These two metrics represent only a small fraction of the benefits that actually can be provided by lighting. Because many of the benefits provided by lighting remain unmeasured, current lighting practice wastes capital and operational expenses as well as our natural resources. By accepting and promulgating new benefit metrics, lighting will become less wasteful and thereby more valuable.