The invention provides a light emitting diode (LED) lighting system (1) comprising a string (ST) including a number of light emitting diode (LED) elements (10) functionally connected with an AC voltage source (20) configured to apply an input voltage (Vi) to said string (ST), wherein the string (ST) comprises a plurality of segments (S1, S2, S3,…), with each segment (S1, S2, S3,…) comprising at least one or more of said light emitting diode (LED) elements (10), wherein the light emitting diode (LED) lighting system (1) is configured to connect a first segment (S1) in the string (ST) between and driven by the input voltage (Vi) when said input voltage (Vi) is bigger than a first threshold, and to connect the first segment (S1) and a second segment (S2) in the string between and driven by the input voltage (Vi) when said input voltage (Vi) is bigger than a second threshold bigger than said first threshold, wherein each LED element (10) comprises a light emitting diode (100) configured to generate blue LED radiation (101), wherein said first segment (S1) comprises a second photoluminescent material comprising LED element (210), wherein the second photoluminescent material comprising LED element (210) comprises (a) light emitting diode (100) and (b) a second photoluminescent material (230) configured to convert at least part of said LED radiation (101) into second conversion radiation (231) in the visible, and wherein said second photoluminescent material (230) only has a decay time of the second conversion radiation (231) smaller than 1 ms, and said second segment (S2) comprise first photoluminescent material comprising LED elements (110) each comprising (a) light emitting diode (100) and (b) a first photoluminescent material (130) configured to convert at least part of said LED radiation (101) into first conversion radiation (131) in the visible, and wherein said first photoluminescent material (130) only has a decay time of the first conversion radiation (131) in the range of 1-500 ms.