LED lighting. Preferred color temp.

[shortyb]

Recently had to replace a few early LED "bulbs" that were first on the market types. All had only the soft white color of 2700K. The new ones I replaced them with are all 5000K "daylight" color rendering. Most were watt for watt equivalents, but seem brighter. Even had my son commented (he doesn't notice ANYTHING ) that they were brighter. All in how the eye perceives light, but as I've gotten older, the "whiter" lights seem to illuminate things more clearly and cause less eye strain. Probably just the opposite since the waves are more toward the blue end of the spectrum and that usually induces MORE eye strain. Oh well, I can see better with them vs. old T.E. style color.

 

[racer12306]

We like 5000K bulbs in our house.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Recently had to replace a few early LED "bulbs" that were first on the market types. All had only the soft white color of 2700K. The new ones I replaced them with are all 5000K "daylight" color rendering. Most were watt for watt equivalents, but seem brighter. Even had my son commented (he doesn't notice ANYTHING ) that they were brighter. All in how the eye perceives light, but as I've gotten older, the "whiter" lights seem to illuminate things more clearly and cause less eye strain. Probably just the opposite since the waves are more toward the blue end of the spectrum and that usually induces MORE eye strain. Oh well, I can see better with them vs. old T.E. style color.

watt for watt isn't a good comparison, it's about the lumen output. Maybe the new bulbs have a higher output.

 

[vavavroom]

I would not like the equivalent of a midday sun in my living space. Even for a worklight I prefer slightly warmer light.

 

[Leo99]

I like them slightly yellow. Too white and they look a little blue to me and too harsh.

 

[BMW Dom]

5000k for garages, basements, bathrooms. 2700k for bed rooms.

 

[y_p_w]

Depends. Some are adjustable. My folks just got new LED fixtures installed in an investment property and those had three color settings. It was a super-white, soft white, and really yellow. I tried checking them with the cover off (needed to access the switch) and I saw that they basically had half yellow and half white LED arrays. The two extremes would only turn on the yellow or white arrays. In the middle it seemed like all the arrays were on at half power for each color.

I've also seen adjustability in direct-wire fluorescent replacement tubes and Edison-base LED bulbs. For that same house they got a bunch of LED bulbs at Costco and they had something like 4 settings. How they were set depended on the room.

 

[shortyb]

watt for watt isn't a good comparison, it's about the lumen output. Maybe the new bulbs have a higher output.

You're right. All were of similar output, within about 50 lumens.

 

[fsdork]

Depends. Some are adjustable. My folks just got new LED fixtures installed in an investment property and those had three color settings. It was a super-white, soft white, and really yellow. I tried checking them with the cover off (needed to access the switch) and I saw that they basically had half yellow and half white LED arrays. The two extremes would only turn on the yellow or white arrays. In the middle it seemed like all the arrays were on at half power for each color.

I've also seen adjustability in direct-wire fluorescent replacement tubes and Edison-base LED bulbs. For that same house they got a bunch of LED bulbs at Costco and they had something like 4 settings. How they were set depended on the room.

I replaced the bare-bulb lampholder fixtures in my unfinished basement/workout area with some LED fixtures from Costco. They can be set to either warm or bright white using a basic switch - to change from one to the other, I have to turn the switch off, then on again within a few seconds. I do have the circuit on a dimmer switch, but that's not required, and doesn't affect the colour temperature change function.

The only downside I've found so far is that if I'm too quick with the off/on cycle, the three fixtures in the circuit can get out of sync. Thankfully, I was able to sort that out by quick-cycling the switch again, but that was pure luck. Plan B was to disconnect power to the individual fixtures as necessary to get them back in sync.

https://www.costco.ca/koda-slim-15-in.-led-ceiling-light-with-adjustable-color.product.100746817.html

 

[b_b]

I think 4kish is the sweet spot for indoor lighting. just enough modern look with out it feeling like an operating room.

 

[tbm5690]

LEDs dim over time, so you can bet that the old ones weren't putting out the same amount of light that they did when new.

I think 3000k is about perfect for indoor living areas.

 

[CarDoc66]

The fixtures I bought in my home have a switch on them to change the temp. It’s like 2700-5500, you can change it any time.

 

[Number_35]

Depends. Some are adjustable. My folks just got new LED fixtures installed in an investment property and those had three color settings. It was a super-white, soft white, and really yellow. I tried checking them with the cover off (needed to access the switch) and I saw that they basically had half yellow and half white LED arrays. The two extremes would only turn on the yellow or white arrays. In the middle it seemed like all the arrays were on at half power for each color.

I've also seen adjustability in direct-wire fluorescent replacement tubes and Edison-base LED bulbs. For that same house they got a bunch of LED bulbs at Costco and they had something like 4 settings. How they were set depended on the room.

A few years ago I replaced the old fluorescent over the sink with an LED lamp with the same option to set the colour to 3000, 4000, or 5000K. As with your lamp, the setting involved turning on all the 3000s, all the 5000s, or half and half. The 4000K setting works well for the application.

 

[wings&wheels]

Recently had to replace a few early LED "bulbs" that were first on the market types. All had only the soft white color of 2700K. The new ones I replaced them with are all 5000K "daylight" color rendering. Most were watt for watt equivalents, but seem brighter. Even had my son commented (he doesn't notice ANYTHING ) that they were brighter. All in how the eye perceives light, but as I've gotten older, the "whiter" lights seem to illuminate things more clearly and cause less eye strain. Probably just the opposite since the waves are more toward the blue end of the spectrum and that usually induces MORE eye strain. Oh well, I can see better with them vs. old T.E. style color.

The first gen consumer led bulns were great; big heat sinks and, except for infant mortality, very, very long lived. Frustratingly, your new ones won't be....

We had 2700k in our kitchen, but after changing the cabinets to grey, went to GE Refresh 5000k, bright and just shy of harsh.

 

[Skippy722]

2700-3000k for me, with a high CRI. I like the GE Reveal HD+ bulbs.

 

[maineiac]

We use 2700K indoors. Anything higher feels unpleasant to us. Almost as important, and irrespective of color, make sure whatever you use has a CRI (color rendition index) above 90. If you use lower, colors, especially reds, will look washed out and unnatural.

 

[RhondaHonda]

2700-3000 indoors. Anything higher looks too blue to me indoors.

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

My wife doesn't know beans about light temperature but she knows what light is best for putting on makeup and it happens to be 3k, sooooo our lightbulbs are all 3k. The shop lights I bought for the garage are 5k which is bright white without being blue. I like that in the garage but it might be a little too industrial inside the house which is mostly earth tones.

I finally wore out a set of LED bulbs as opposed to having them fail. When LED bulbs first came out I bought a set of Philips bulbs with the piece of clear plastic inside that faked a filament to put in the front porch lights. After seven years of dusk to dawn operation they were noticeably dimmer and needed replacing.

 

[Racer4]

We like the 4000 to 5000 led whiter light in our home. I just feel it makes things seam brighter.

 

[jhellwig]

3500k is the sweet spot in my opinion when you used to be able to get fluorescent tubes in that. Installed a lot of them. 4100k is the max of what I consider tolerable outside of a paint booth. The higher temps of LED bulbs just don't look right and 2700k is almost too yellow. The only decent temp and CRI stuff I have seen lately is commercial grade stuff.

If they could reproduce the old GE Reveal incandescent color correctly I would be happier with that.