What colour temperature of LED should we use?

The shades of white light are generally divided into three categories:

• warm white (2300–3500 K)

• natural/neutral white (3600–4900 K)

• cool white (from 5000 K)

There is no sharp boundary between cool and warm white. The easiest way to picture the colour temperature scale is with red dominant at one end and blue at the other: as the colour temperature rises, the red components of the light decrease while the blue components increase.
The lower the colour temperature, therefore, the more yellow, orange and “warm” the light we get; the higher it is, the bluer and “cooler”.

Which should we use, and where?

Finding the colour temperature that suits a particular room is a subjective task, but the colour temperature figures below give some easy points of reference for the decision:

• Candle: 1900 K

• Household incandescent lamp: 2800 K

• Morning or afternoon sun, low in the sky: 4800 K

• Average daylight, flash: 5600 K

• Daytime, slightly cloudy sky: 8000 K

• Overcast, foggy weather: 10,000 K

The following information can help in choosing between cool and warm white.

Cool white conveys cleanliness and clarity, while the slightly hazy, yellow light of warm white conveys the opposite. Cool white is far more likely to give the impression of greater brightness than warm white.

Accordingly, the most common applications are:

Warm white: rooms where we spend a lot of time — typically the living room and the bedroom. This is the most pleasant colour temperature for the human body, because like sunshine it creates a sense of warmth.

Natural white: suitable for the rooms in which we carry out our daytime activities — the living room, the study, the kitchen and the bathroom.

Cool white: this kind of light conveys cleanliness and aids concentration, so we use it in spaces such as offices, retail premises and warehouses.

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