Cool or warm white LED for home office?

GeX

GeX

GeX

Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2002
Posts
7,059
Location
Manchester
Hi all. I'm sorting out the lighting in my office (current it has CCFL 'warm' up lighting in the corner, CCFL desk lamp ..yuck, and GU10 halogens in the middle.

Looking at going to LED, am aware of what the colour differences look like. What have you got in your home offices?
 
To be honest I didn't like either on its own, I currently have GU10 spot lights in my room where I work, warm white felt a bit dirty and yellowy wheras the cool whites felt very clinical and blue. I've mixed them up a bit so 2 of the spots are cool with the other in the run using a warm bulb. The brightness is good and the colour I get is close to "afternoon", but it still doesn't feel as comforting as halogens as the lighting is harsh.

I'd look at getting 5w+ SMD warm white lights and a halogen desk lamp.
 
I put GU15 LEDs in the kitchen and bathroom. Went with cool white and now they feel like operating theatres, too white, it's unnatural. Will be going warm white if I upgrade the rest of the bulbs.

I also went with 3w which was a silly mistake, we have very high ceilings and they are just not bright enough. Next time I will go with 9w I think.
 
Cool white LEDs are amazing when used in conjunction with other lighting, especially of you want to highlight an area. I had them fitted under my kitchen cupboards projecting on the work surface. Also I love my new LED fish tank lighting in my living room, really makes quite a statement in the room as they're so bright.

Mix the lighting up.
 
Cool white for office and warm white if you're in a living room watching TV or reading a book etc.

The cool white works best if you're sitting in front of a screen, the colours of the screen look more natural and it's actually easier to read otherwise the warm cast makes the screen look too blue in tint and you end up squinting more than you will realise.

Colour accuracy and ambient lighting is important people!
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

Steeps said:
To be honest I didn't like either on its own, I currently have GU10 spot lights in my room where I work, warm white felt a bit dirty and yellowy wheras the cool whites felt very clinical and blue. I've mixed them up a bit so 2 of the spots are cool with the other in the run using a warm bulb. The brightness is good and the colour I get is close to "afternoon", but it still doesn't feel as comforting as halogens as the lighting is harsh.

I'd look at getting 5w+ SMD warm white lights and a halogen desk lamp.
Click to expand...

I was pondering getting warm white for the ceiling lamps (cluster of 3 GU10s - but I only intend to light one of them. It's a small room, and I only *need* light from it near the desk area), and then cool white for the desk lamp. But then I think I should reverse that.

On my desk is a pair of 24" screens, and so they put out a lot of light of their own. I don't have Flux installed (I assume it's an option on OSX?), so the screens currently put out quite 'cool' light.

J.B said:
I put GU15 LEDs in the kitchen and bathroom. Went with cool white and now they feel like operating theatres, too white, it's unnatural. Will be going warm white if I upgrade the rest of the bulbs.

I also went with 3w which was a silly mistake, we have very high ceilings and they are just not bright enough. Next time I will go with 9w I think.
Click to expand...

I've read a lot of people say that they like cool white in the kitchen and bathroom - I guess a lot of it does come down to preference and what the rest of the decor / colour scheme is.

tom_nieto said:
Cool white LEDs are amazing when used in conjunction with other lighting, especially of you want to highlight an area. I had them fitted under my kitchen cupboards projecting on the work surface. Also I love my new LED fish tank lighting in my living room, really makes quite a statement in the room as they're so bright.

Mix the lighting up.
Click to expand...

If I were highlighting an area, I'd look at doing something like this - but I'm not.. just trying to cut power usage and improve my office a bit!

mrk said:
Cool white for office and warm white if you're in a living room watching TV or reading a book etc.

The cool white works best if you're sitting in front of a screen, the colours of the screen look more natural and it's actually easier to read otherwise the warm cast makes the screen look too blue in tint and you end up squinting more than you will realise.

Colour accuracy and ambient lighting is important people!
Click to expand...

This is what I feel like with the current halogens and CCFL setup. It bugs me no end that the two screens are slightly 'off' from each wrt colour temperature - and it seems no amount of fiddling with the OSD is fixing that.

rishy said:
Where is a good place to purchase GU10 LEDs from and cheap ?
Click to expand...

I've always used ultraleds.

What I might end up doing, I'll buy a couple of each type and try it out. I'm expecting my preference to be cool white, and if that happens I can put the warm white bulbs in the bedroom.
 
I've tried out the LEDs now, and my findings are..

They're certainly bright enough. The warm LED is not as warm as the halogens and the beam is less focused. The lack of focus is a good thing for me as I'm not using them as spotlights. The colour temperature is a bit :/ - they're nearer to CCFL lighting than halogen.

The 'cool' white is very.. clinical looking. I'm sure it'd work better in a white room, but as my walls are offwhite then it looks a bit wrong. I'm going to keep the warm LED in the ceiling light, and the cool LED as my desktop lamp. I won't be putting these bulbs in the bedroom, I'd rather use more power and have a warmer, softer light :)
 
I prefer cool white

But I find the blubs really hard to get , tescos / asda and sains all stock only the warm white
 
Tom_ed1987 said:
Cool white leds are hideous for domestic lighting use. I would go with warm white, or halogens.
Click to expand...

Do not get cool white. My girlfriends Dad has just bought a house and they are in the process of doing lots of work to it. They've had lots of downlights put in and I don't think they even bothered to do any research. As a result they have cool white lighting in their kitchen and bathrooms and it's hideous!

I bought bulbs from SimplyLED (quite a few) so got them for £7-8 each. a 50/50 SMD will give a 120 degree beam angle and a very good spread of light, literally comes out sideways right from the fitting. However a more traditional style bulb will give the traditional halogen look with a pool of light in the middle which is a 30/40 degree beam angle.

You'd need less 120 degree angle bulbs than traditional.

So snaps from quite a while back (all warm white), excuse any mess/clutter/unfinished DIY I had just moved in:

120 degree 50/50SMD

http://skitch.com/bennyc/8txjp/iphoto

http://skitch.com/bennyc/gjr5s/iphoto

50/50 SMD adhesive strip lighting is the worktop lighting, brilliant stuff.

I changed them in my lounge and bedroom to a 3 x 1 watt LED style to give a more traditional halogen style light, as I found the 120 degree angle a bit too bright. My lounge is around 19ft x 12ft and I have 8 downlights which is plenty.

They're on a dimmer here turned down low. You'll need a trailing edge dimmer to work with LED's as they have such a low draw, they strobed on a regular dimmer. I have a couple spare actually.

http://skitch.com/bennyc/88sha/iphoto

Can take some more snaps if you would prefer.

If it were me I would wire up the downlight fitings to some 3 core with a plug and get some helpers to hold them up or fix them to your ceiling temporarily to see how many you will need and where you would like them.

Hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
lurkio said:
I prefer cool white

But I find the blubs really hard to get , tescos / asda and sains all stock only the warm white
Click to expand...

They're very easy to get anywhere online.

BennyC - The existing light fitting is just a ceiling rose with 3x GU10 fittings on them. So there's no ground in moving that atm. If I were to redo it properly though, I'd bin that, drop the ceiling a few inches and fit sunken spots properly.

The bulbs I have contain 27 SMD units with 3 LEDs per unit. Total ouput is 486 lumens with 120degree beam angle. They're noticeable wider than the halogens.

The problem with taking photos of lights like this is that the camera will detect the white balance of the light and then adjust to correct the colours. The only option is to fix the white balance, but then things can look a bit odd.

As I've said, I've got the warm (3500k) LED in the ceiling rose and the cool (6000k) in the desk lamp. I want warmer for the bedroom.
 
I think it will vary bulb to bulb. I have some E27 (porch light) LED bulbs from the same company (not necessarily same manufacturer) and put one of them into an uplighter and it's a cooler/flatter colour than the downlights.

If it were me I'd buy a couple of each and see how you get on. The 120 angle can almost be a bit too much sometimes!
 
The energy saving, despite the small premium over Halogens/initial outlay, was enough for me.

I can turn all the lights on in every room in my house and use less energy than if the 8 downlights in my lounge were halogen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom