LED Color Temperatures and How to Choose the Best Ones

LED Color Temperatures and How to Choose the Best Ones

The color temperature is used to describe light sources in the lighting industries. Especially, the LED fixtures, bulbs, and other LED products are described by their color temperature. For a professional, this must be a familiar concept but for a regular user, it may not be a known factor. Often people think LED color temperature is how hot the bulb gets during the operation. Well, it has nothing to do with the temperature of the LED bulb, rather it relates to our perception. Despite the poor understanding of this concept amongst regular users of LED, it is an important factor for the selection of light sources. This post aims to educate LED users about the concept of color temperature to help them select the best light source.

The Concept of Color Temperature

The color temperature is the nature of temperature sensed by human eyes while looking at a light source. Generally, human eyes can feel the warmth or coldness while looking at a light bulb, this sensation of temperature is known as color temperature. The color temperature is also known as correlated color temperature (CCT).

The background theory of correlated color temperature is light spectrum and color theory. The different wavelengths of light emit a specific color, and according to color theory, each color is recognized as warm or cold according to the concept of color temperature. Thus, each color of light in the light spectrum is associated with a specific color temperature.

Now that you know what color temperature exactly is, let us discuss why it is so important in the selection of LED products.

Significance of Color Temperature in LED Product Selection

Higher is the color temperature, higher is the atmospheric temperature. This is the simplest reason for what you need to select a light source with an appropriate color temperature. As human eyes are sensitive to color temperature, similarly are the other objects in the surrounding. Due to which the color temperature is felt by the objects in the atmosphere. On a larger scale, this color temperature contributes to global warming. That is why one must select a light source with a suitable color temperature which may just suffice for your application.

Selection of the Best Light Source with a Suitable Color Temperature

The color temperature is measured in Kelvin. However, the Kelvin measure of color temperature is opposite to the furnace temperature. This means lower Kelvin signifies higher color temperature and warmer light impression, on contrary, higher Kelvin signifies lower color temperature and cooler light. Therefore, you should try getting a higher Kelvin value of LED fixtures or bulbs. LED emits white or blue light which is cooler in color temperature, fluorescent bulbs emit yellow like which is warm in nature. Therefore, LEDs must be opted for.

However, there are different types of white light which offer different color temperature. Following are the types of white light and color temperatures you can get in LED products.

Taking reference to the above table, you must select a suitable LED source with a specific type of white light and color temperature for your applications.

Lighting being a very important element of daily lifestyle, it is important to select quality products. Since LED bulbs and fixtures are highly popular these days, if you are planning to invest in LED lighting for your office or industrial facility, then you must purchase from trusted manufacturers like E2 Lighting USA. The company manufactures environment-friendly LED products. You can also get lighting rebates for adopting LED lighting solutions.