2015-01-23

Cool or warm, which one to choose?

Before getting this question, let's figure out what cool and warm mean.
The "cool" and "warm" is to describe the color temperature of a light source. Imagine you're burning or heating an object. It starts to glow, first read and then, yellow and finally turns blue as the temperature changes. The temperature refers to the color the lamp produces but not the lamp itself. Lights are usually measured in Kelvin(K) that describes how the color of the light descents from a lamp. The higher the number is, the closer the light resembles daylight blue.

Kelvins	Type	Color
1,000K	Candle light Red/Yellow	Very Warm
2700K	Conventional Lamp - Yellow	Warm
3000K	-	Warm White
4000K	Halogen/CFL - Blue	White
5000K	-	Cool White
6000K	-	Daylight
10,000K	Blue Sky - Blue	Very Cool

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For instance, when the color temperature is 1000K, you get very warm light like candle light red or yellow. For conventional lamp of warm light, the color temperature is 2700K. Warm white is 3000K. Halogen or CFL is white color with a temperature of 4000K. When it reaches 5000K, the lamp looks cool white. Daylight lamps provide daylight or fairly blue light with a color temperature of 6000K or higher.

When do we use cool light, warm light, and when do we use daylight?
When you choose different colors of LED lights, you are setting the mood of your area. Warmer light brings a comfortable warm home atmosphere. That is why many people may decorate their sleeping room with warm white lamps and bulbs. As for the study room, a pure or cool white light is a better choice. Because the light color is optimized to ensure the least eye strain and fatigue so that you can remain fresh and concentrated during hours of work or study. Daylight lamps are more widely used in industrial, a solemn venue or a stadium, but less applied in home place.

So the question is, cool or warm?

An improper lamp makes you feel uneasy or uncomfortable while a right one creates cozy relax feeling. Although the choice of cool or warm white is about personal preferece and habit. If you like yellow warm light color like being at home, then warm white 2700K-3000K would be a good choice. If you want fresh, bright and clean light, like being in an office,toilet,study room,kitchen etc, then choose the 4000K-5000K cool white lamp. So check carefully the parameters printed on the lamp or bulb. You can even mix cool and warm white light in an space to balance the ambience.

Warm/Cool white light transition desk lamp

LONEN SP02-15 is a desk lamp that can satisfy both your needs of cool and warm white light. Among the 40 super bright SMD, half are cool while another half are warm light. When turning the know switch, the transition from one color light to the other occurs.