3000K or GTFO
Specifically updated my house to only use daylight bulbs everywhere.
I use lights to see. I don’t need stupid orange lights
You need both. Daylight during the day, warmer (<2700K) in the evening.
laughs in adaptive lighting
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It’s curious seeing people equate warm lighting with old people and old homes. Maybe it’s just my region but everybody (especially boomers) switched to CFLs when those came out and then to the cheapest, nastiest cool LEDs with cornea-melting levels of blue light after that. Sometimes I feel like the only sane person when I’m walking around and seeing the insides of houses lit up the same color as you’d get from a $5 flashlight 15 years ago.
I have 4000k in the kitchen and bathroom and 2700K or 3000K everywhere else. After reading this thread I’m considering finding some high CRI adjustables because I also find the 4000k lights pretty harsh at night.
They remind me of the old style fluorescent circle lights from the 50s, where they were almost green.
More than even color temperature I’m shocked at the number of people who illuminate their rooms with four clear-glass bulbs in the ceiling fan, so bright you can’t even look at them from the sidewalk. Have these people never heard of a lamp? You can practically see the shadows of dust motes in the air against the sterile white walls.
2700K is the closest to firelight. I refuse to abandon thousands of years of archetypal affection for cheap LED false suns.
the only smart house thing I envy is temperature adjustable lights automaticly adjusting the temperature according to the time of day
some thing like that could bring the best of both worlds easily, I find higher temperatures more pleasing at day but like you they are too harsh for me at night
I have a couple lifx bulbs and my partner brought like 8 cheapo Chinese ones with her when we moved in together. It is quite nice. The LIFX bulbs give much higher quality light and better color, but the ability to schedule lights out and wake up to artificial sunrise is incredibly nice regardless. As cool as that is I would not recommend WiFi bulbs to anyone for the following reasons:
- They are horribly insecure. I have them walled off in their own little VLAN but it still makes me paranoid. I’m no hacker but they have Internet access and radios, so I’m sure there’s a server in Shenzhen that knows our comings and goings, when we have guests over, etc. They also have my IP address and all of my neighbors’ SSIDs so they know exactly where I live.
- They are a pain in the ass to set up. You have to power cycle the bulb five times, then wait for it to enter a pairing mode, then you have to wait for the stupid app to find the bulb,which doesn’t always work. After that, you have to select your wifi network from the list, which again it might not always actually detect, even if it’s a 2.4GHz network (because almost none of them support 5GHz). Then you have to type in your wifi password. Repeat this entire process for every. Single. Bulb. You’d think the process for the LIFX bulbs would be more streamlined because they’re six times the price, but you’d be wrong. In theory they’re Homekit enabled, which is cool if you have an iPhone unless you lost the barcode they put in the box. Or unless you have an older model. And again, sometimes they’ll just refuse to work. I have a Color Mini that just stopped being smart one day. It’s a really expensive normal bulb now.
- If you put too many of them on the router your ISP gave you there’s a good chance you’ll start overwhelming it and your performance will degrade. More than like 15 devices total (including the bulbs, smart speakers, TVs, gaming consoles, phones, laptops, etc) and a bottom range router is going to start begging for death.
I’m keeping them because the lady likes them and at present, everything works so long as I don’t touch anything. I’d like to try using zigbee bulbs because they solve a lot of the problems I have with WiFi bulbs but replacing the system I have would be expensive, even after liquidating the old ones on eBay.
Modern led bulbs can do both and then with home assistant you can script it so the color temperature changes through the day as the sun changes.
In the morning my house is cool light around 6500k and over the day it warms up to about 3k
They also make bulbs that automatically change as you dim them since a smart bulb may not be practical or even possible everywhere.
Incandescent did this without software.
You don’t even need to script it. Just use the Adaptive Lighting custom integration. You can sync your light color temperature with the sun, or customize it any way you like.
Ooo what an amazing idea!
I just want to be able to slaughter a pig if I need to. Gotta do that under cool whites my guy.
As someone with shit vision, I also want my house lit up like a hospital.
For the people saying “5kK+ in the office, 3kK- in the bedroom” what do you use in your kitchen? In your bathroom?
Adjustable temperature bulbs and local control/automation
4k
Daylight bulbs are everywhere in Japan and it’s so strange. I tried looking for warm light bulbs at a local store and they don’t even stock them as an option. I do see them used in some people’s houses so I’m sure it’s not universal, but the prevalence of daylight/cool bulbs is weird to me, I’m very much warm bulb gang.
Could you find adjustable LED bulbs? Those are honestly the best of both worlds. Daylight is great for things like cleaning, but I much prefer warm light for general living.
I was gonna flame you but the reality is both have their place. Sunlight bulbs in hallways and bathrooms looks awful. You can’t see shit and they cast long shadows which makes visibility worse. Daylight bulbs are great for those areas.
That said daylight bulbs are too harsh in the living areas so I understand both sides.
The wavelength has negligible effect on shadow geometry (yes, there is chromatic aberration, refraction, interference but those are very minor in normal lighting, you need special prisms, tiny slits and perhaps lasers to really observe them). What do you even mean?
Also, sunlight (6000K) and daylight (6500K) is pretty much the same color because direct sunlight is >90 % of daylight (the rest is the blue sky and white clouds).
I use red bulb (or just leds now) unironically, I can see good enough to walk at night and they don’t fucking hurt my eyes like dumbass white bulbs. Seriously how do people use those white bulbs? Just going to a hospital is painful.
The center is 3000K tho
Used 5000K because it is missing from OP’s post for some reason.
Warm white is usually 1800 K to 3000 K. What you showed is less Kelvin than the color temperature of fire (1500 K). We don’t have a color temperature word for that, but “red” works. Of course, such light has no blue component (helps control the cicardian cycle) and is pretty much monochromatic with CRI of <5.
Personally though, something under 1500K is perfect for me as bedtime approaches. It primes me to fall asleep quickly
I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, I have a red bulb too. It’s “handmade” by removing thick red rubber from a “golf ball” decorative 7W CFL and stretching it over a similarly-sized 6W 2700K LED that has instant start and higher light output (not to mention, the taut rubber won’t send glass ball shards into a mercury-vapor-filled tube if it happens to fall). It is not as monochromatic as pure red LEDs, I think it’s close to what the phosphor-based red ones emit but those are marketed as cicardian too. I have to avoid ooking straight into it though: the pupil is wide open because rods don’t react strongly to red light so long-wavelength (red) cones get massively overloaded and you see a green spot for a while.
This is why I don’t use them.
The paint in my living room looks diarrhea brown and corpse gray under warm light. It’s purple and blue, and there are a lot of windows so I can’t plan for warm light as a default like I can in bedrooms. Daylight bulbs keep the color what it should be.
Both. Both are good.
Daylight for the work rooms and things like home-office or homework desks, warm light for cozy couch corners and bedrooms.
Or go full high-tech and install lights with adjustable color temperature.
Dear god no, you never want mixed light, it’s like walking into an alien space ship or from the Arctic to the Sahara desert just by going to a different room.
Wow, didn’t think about it this way…
But for me: Hell, yeah! Added bonus!
Signals the primeval parts of your brain:
“Here you have to fight to survive the horrors of the pleistocean ice shield!”Or, after changing the room:
“This is your dimly fire-lid cave, here you are save to relax!”
We have a “sunshine” script in Home Assistant that sets all bulbs to daylight and 100%. Great for livening up overcast days.
Nah 3kK is cool enough for work unless you’re like a graphic designer that needs to see colours accurately. 2.7kK for the rest of the house btw
If you paint you need those 5000 ones or your paintings will look like shit.
Meanwhile all the good paintings were from before lights were invented
I would think that accurate color representation would’ve generally required the bright lights and broad spectrum coverage of sunlight, so I imagine people just…painted during the day, by daylight.
I need those blues though to keep me awake
Exactly.
Changing the lights in the office room to the brightest daylight variant I could find and adding an additional 5000 Lux desk lamp during winter months was a gamechanger for focus and productivity.
Still enjoy the warm glow of the living room lights in the evening, though.
Good luck doing any soldering with that.
I solder with 2700k lighting all the time for extended periods of time. Not sure what the problem is.
Shadows are soft and pertinax color doesn’t help.
I have 2700k spots at my work desk’s soldering station, I honestly couldn’t tell you why but I prefer it. Maybe because I’ve always had warm lighting when soldering. Makes me wanna get neutral or cold spots and try that for a change.
For me the bigger issue is light intensity, I swear the old lighting setup at that work desk was as bright as a grave light… dunno how anyone could use that.
My eyesight is shot now. Pretty much all soldering I do with a microscope that has daylight LEDs on anyway.
Hahaha more kelvin is cooler
I know?
Yup. Humans and physics are weird.
I don’t know. I feel like I’m more alert and the brain is more active with 4k+ in the day time (on days when there’s low light outside). But in the evening I want it down to 2700k or so, in order to get a proper sleep cycle.
Or go full high-tech and install lights with adjustable color temperature.
I may be ahead of the curve a bit. Adjustable colour temp didn’t seem enough. My whole apartment has RGB bulbs since about 5-6 years ago. I just couldn’t go back to on/off one shade lights ugh.
Also I rock a 300w LED panel to get a bit more brightness in my winter days, but that’s not RGB though.
Most strips are RGB. The one you are looking for is RGBWW. Full RGB and Warm & White. But they are expensive ><
I mean yeah they are RGBWW if you put it like that but wouldn’t RGB already include different temps of white? So all of my bulbs are Hue, and yes, they were somewhat of an investment even though my apt is not that huge. Like 300e total years ago though, for uhmm the basic 250e colour set, 5 e36 bulbs hub and remote, and then later I also bought two e14s.
But the LED panel I have is actually a 300w growlight. I couldn’t put it on full I’d burn my eyes. But it serves very well as light therapy on the mildest setting. It’s not got any adjustments except a dimmer though.
I’ve been rocking my same hue lights for 8 years. I love having blue and red in the same light fixture. Creates a nice night purple with funny shadows.
This. My wife loves warm light, but I dislike it. I find my visual acuity better under daylight lights, and find myself cursing if I’m trying to work on something (screws in kids toys or whatever)
I’m like this, home office, kitchen, bathroom etc is daylight like 5k, only the bedroom and a corner lamp in the couch room are 3k.
Personally I just go for warm white for places which should be cozy and cold white for places with a more utilitarian use.
Cold white LED light bulbs are actually more efficient, so I’ll even get more light out of the same power lamp making it easier to see what I’m doing (which is what you generally need lights for in an utilitarian use location).
whole house is setup with daylight bulbs except the dining hall. it has warm lights. I hate it. it’s like I’m eating in the dark.
I dunno why, but warm lighting at night just makes me feel depressed. I need daylight bulbs across my house. Adjustable brightness preferred though, so I’m not blinding myself at night.
Daylight bulbs only belong in the bathroom. That’s the only place I want to see things that bright. Also, if there’s anyplace you want to feel sterile and hospital like, wouldn’t it be the bathroom?
the kitchen too
I want going to the bathroom to feel like the scene in Fear & Loathing where there’s a dude getting high off LSD by licking it off another dude’s sleeves.
Part of my job is selling lighting.
The following conversation takes place at least once a day without falter:
X: I’d like one light like this please (puts some form of light on the table)
ME: ok (goes through the script to make sure they know what they want/it’s compatible/…yaddayadda).
X: oh and it needs to be warm in colour.
ME: 2700k got it.
X: yes, but like warm right? Because it’s led.
(Variant: the rando looking for something small for his toilet. “Oh you know, something like 18000 lumens and 60000k”
You value your eyes at all?)
“You want cold white or warm white?”
“I need a cold light source, like an LED. I’m afraid the fixture would melt if I put incandescent in there.” (Yes, some E14 fixtures in cheap plastic bathroom mirrors etc. only take up to 10-20 W and have a warning sticker)
“What, higher temperature is colder?” (It’s not their fault though that in nature, white and blue things 🧊 are generally colder than yellow and orange things 🔥)
Do people actually confuse color temperature with operating temperature? I wouldn’t want any lights in my house if their operating temperature was ≥2700 K. I want the room to be bright, but not if that means melting the steel beams in the ceiling.
The colour temperature of an incandescent lamp is, exactly and by definition, its operating temperature.
A 2700K lightbulb will not melt steel. The glass is not that hot (you can tell because it’s not glowing itself). In any case, it’s really power that matters - a small object at 2700K will not damage steel if it’s not being continuously heated; it needs to be heated at a rate which brings the steel above its melting point before the heat can dissipate.
Yes, for incandescent lights that’s true. Are they still being sold?
Probably in some places, but that’s not my point. People remember that lightbulbs are hot, and it’s literally called colour temperature (for good reason).
“Your fixture won’t work with led for dimming”
confusion
nervous laughter
disbelief
“You’ll have to replace the driver”
same cycle but even more intense
head explodes
It does not help that some people pronounce LED as “led”, or “ice” in Slavic languages. And “led lampa” is a homonym of “letlampa” (bunsen torch).
Take them up on their offer of lumen output and show off one of these bad boys.
