Warm Light or Cool Light? What Does it Mean?

When you buy LED lights for your room, like a high-quality e27 LED bulb, sometimes the assistants will ask you if what you want is a warm or cool colour. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, they might get confused as to what the assistant means. The colour of light has a lot to do with how hot the source is. But for some odd reason, humanity made the colour temperature more complicated by calling the hottest colour “cool” and the cooler colour “warm,” which confuses more people.

It goes like this: light travels as a wave, and this is what gives light colour. White light has three waves of light in it: red, blue and green. The hotter a source of light is, the more blue waves are in the light. The cooler the source is, the more red waves it produces. We call reddish/yellowish light “warm” and the bluish light “cool”.

Now, what does this mean for LEDs? Well, it is a matter of preference and creating the “atmosphere” of a room. Lighting is an essential element in decorating and designing your home’s interior. The two colours can significantly change how people see the room. So how can you decide what colour to pick for a room? Here are a few tips on how to do just that:

Warm colours promote relaxation, cool colours help concentration

This is the main reason why some interior designers choose light based on colour temperature. Warm colours are dimmer and more relaxing to the eyes because they have less blue, while cooler light has more blue in it and that makes it bright.

People nowadays have four colours to choose from: red, yellow, white, and blue. Red and yellow are warm colours, while white and blue are cool ones. But this doesn’t mean that the colours are solidly red, yellow and blue. The reddish and yellowish light makes white objects reflect a very light beige. White ones are reflected as they are. And bluish ones give a white object a bluish tinge.

Preferences

If you have a preference for which colours to choose for which room, you should go with that. If you are unsure of what to do, then just remember the first tip and place warm colours in rooms that promote relaxation, such as bathrooms, bedrooms, and living rooms, and cool lights in places that need concentration, such as the garage, work rooms (if you have any) such as a study or an office, and the kitchen.

Brightness

The brightness is the singular reason why cool colours are said to promote concentration. They make rooms look clearer, with every object’s colour being reflected as they should be. In the garage and the kitchen, where concentration is a must for any reason, the brightness also gives you a clear vision of everything you see, so you can spot a screw, nail, knife or fork that’s out of place, for example.

Warm colours are dimmer and are more comfortable on the eyes, and this is good especially in bedrooms. Using white light in bedrooms tends to keep people’s concentration high, making them less likely to fall asleep. And when they wake up, cooler light hurts the eyes more than warm light.

And that’s it. Just remember to try and keep the purpose of the light in mind as you decide what colour to purchase. For example, if you need a spotlight or floodlight for your gate, you want white. For a garden, you want warmer colours.

Image: Pixabay.com

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