By complementing the LED chips combination with bits of other spectrum colors, we not only feed more information to the plants but also make a richer spectrum. We make one that contains more colors and is thus a closer match to sunlight.
The primary goal is making light that is beneficial for plants and not pleasant for human eyes. At the same time having a pleasant looking light is a great add-on that users of LED grow lights apreciate. We call this kind of light spectrum full, wide or continuous. Marketers of LED companies however use these terms incorrectly and we can not always rely on their statements.
A good rule of thumb is to trust your own eyes as well. If the light looks strange to human eyes, is overly sharp and looks unnatural, it has a low CRI value. It also probably means it is a result of a simple red-blue LED chip combination. The light that looks natural and pleasant to human eyes has a high CRI value and is probably made up of a combination of many differently colored LED chips. Below you can see Valoya’s NS12 and AP673L patented spectra.
