What is True-Light?

True-Light® full spectrum daylight lamps were developed in the United States in the 1960s to simulate daylight for space travel (NASA) and for submarine crews.

What is daylight?
Light is reflection. The only thing we as humans can see of light is the light source and the surface on which the light reflects. Daylight constantly changes in strength, while the colour (spectrum) of the light constantly changes in composition. A cold winter day is bluish in colour and a warm summer day is redder in colour, yet both colours are daylight. To get a good light image, you need complete light reflection.




Daylight consists of 50% visible light, 5% ultraviolet light and 45% infrared light. In the case of artificial light, this reflection is generated by phosphor powders in a fluorescent tube or by LEDs in an LED lamp. True-Light's phosphor lamps also provide 4.9% UV light, just like real daylight.

What is the difference between True-Light and other brands of daylight lamps?
First a brief explanation of how these lamps work. Natural daylight covers a bandwidth of 380 to 780 nanometers, including the invisible UV and infrared 'edges' in the phosphor lamps. In daylight, all colours are present in fixed proportions.

This light can be imitated in a full spectrum daylight lamp. In America, where True-Light is invented, a lot of research has been done into the effects of various types of daylight lamps on humans, animals and plants. This shows time and again that only lamps that emit the full spectrum of natural light and that have the colour temperature of natural light, such as True-Light, achieve the positive effects of natural daylight. With lamps that only approximately imitate the daylight spectrum, these positive effects are absent.

Full spectrum daylight literally means: "The full spectrum of sunlight reaching the earth". True-Light full spectrum daylight lamps have a colour temperature of 5500 Kelvin, which is the colour of daylight in our part of Europe. True-Light's colour rendering index is 96 to 98, with natural daylight set at 100. True-Light has been used in daylight studies for more than 60 years and has proven time and again that True-Light lamps come closest to natural daylight

What is colour rendering?
Colour rendering is the ability of artificial light to accurately reproduce the colours of illuminated objects compared to the colour rendering of daylight. Daylight is set to 100. The closer the light value of the light source is to 100, the closer it is to natural daylight so that objects look natural.



How do you measure colour?
Colour measurement is done with a fixed colour scheme of up to 15 colours according to established standards. The term CRI or RA is used when measured over the first 8 colours. The terms CQS or RE are used when all 15 colours are measured and this results in the best colour value. If only the first 8 colours are measured, red (R9) is not included. Red is an important colour for judging colour. Think of skin tones, meat, vegetables, fabrics, paints and in the medical world. Red is essential for the natural reproduction of colours. But red is a difficult colour and brings down the average of colour rendering tests. If the colour quality of a lamp is excellent, such as with True-Light, the difference between CRI/RA and CQS/RE value is nil. If the CRI/RA and CQS/RE value are greater than 95 and are close to each other, you get the true daylight colour.

True-Light advantages:
- True-Light lamps are almost identical to the spectrum of natural daylight
- True-Light lamps stimulate the immune system and therefore the synthesis of vitamin D
- True-Light lamps have a beneficial effect on metabolism, hormones and glands in the body
- True-Light lamps help fight winter depression, they are the original light therapy lamps
- True-Light lamps help restore your biorhythm during shift work or jet lag
- True-Light lamps help with sleep disorders, concentration problems or health problems due to lack of daylight