RGB stands for Red, Green, and Blue and it is a term that is commonly referred to in terms of lighting.  These colours are often used in a variety of ways to produce other colours in lighting.  This model is used for the lighting within various technologies that use light as a part of their everyday function. 

The Additive Color Model

The RGB model starts with darkness (black) and adds light to create color. When these three colors (Red, Green, and Blue) are mixed together at full intensity, this produces a white light.   The RGB colours can be adjusted to produce millions of different distinct hues of colour.

For digital devices like computer monitors and smartphone screens, the intensity of each color channel is typically represented by a value ranging from 0 to 255. A value of 0 means the color is completely off and there is zero light whilst 255 means the color is at full brightness.

How does RGB work with LED lighting?

The RGB colour system is often used within LED lighting when multi-coloured options are required.  Combining these two things together will lead to a coloured long lasting light due to LED technology’s brilliant energy efficiency.  

LED lights will generally come in two types of colour setup:

1. Standard/White LED: An LED that emits a fixed color temperature of a type of white light such as warm white or cool white.
2. RGB LED: This type would include red, green and blue LED emitters allowing the user to customise the light from a wide variety of colours.

Do all LED Lights have an RGB option?

No they do not.  The vast majority of lighting required in the market are for general home and commercial lighting use which only need single colour LEDs.  These lights contain a singular LED chip designed to produce one specific color.  This is usually a shade of white ranging from 2700K (Warm White) to 6500K (Daylight).

RGB LED lights include three separate chips (red, green, and blue) in one housing. These are normally used in applications where color changing is desired.  This could be for stage lighting, and computer peripherals for example.

Which is Better, RGB or RGBW?

RGBW (Red, Green, Blue, White) is generally considered to be superior to standard RGB as it holds the technology to produce a separate white light as well by adding a dedicated white chip.  RGB can make white light by running the red, green and blue lights at full power but this mixture can appear to have an off white or purplish tint to it, especially when compared to other sources of white light.