Which colour of LED bulbs is preferred?

:wink: . /\ . . :+1: … . “Pure” & Neutral are the same to me.

Besides that, as you aptly illustrated Jerommel; there is a lot to consider. :smiley: . :slight_smile: . :person_facepalming: . . :+1:

But… Who’s on first? :person_facepalming:

I prefer yellow (warm white). It is because yellow light is more relaxing. However, if you want to stay awake for work, the color temperature should not be too low.


See also https://www.lumens.com/how-tos-and-advice/kelvin-color-temperature.html

https://recessedlightspro.com/how-does-color-temperature-of-home-lighting-affect-mood/

I’ve been using Feit 90CRI 3000K SKU number 1200267 lights from Costco. Rated 1600 lumens. Tested side by side with tungsten bulbs. Look very close to me. Not too warm.

Less phosphor coating = cheaper price

+ Less phosphor coating = more lumens = better selling muggle specs

This. The seduction of high numbers that don’t effectively matter is strong among the ignorant ones.

I completely agree. I've said this before somewhere else, but the way the lumen is defined I can tolerate, yet I do not concur. Let me quote where it says “the human eye's sensitivity to various wavelengths”, which is funny and ignorant because the eye is an organ of perception, the relative sensitivy to different frequencies is dictated by some program(s) in the mind. And the mind is not the brain… O:)

We are on the same boat.
For home, I can’t stand anything lower than CRI 95-CRI98 so i’m still using halogen bulbs.
For outdoor activities, the higher CRI the better even with a slight positive Duv. My throwers are 3000K-4000K. For close to medium range lightning : 3000K to 5000K.
For professional uses, the higher CRI the better even with a slight positive Duv. 4500K to 6500K, essentially Nichia 219B, E21A and optisolis, Luminus SST-20 (4000K).

I’m a long time adopter of high CRI LEDs and always hated CW but the optisolis 6500K was a game changer for me. Now I’m fine with cool white but only with a CRI above 95.

I’m really looking forward to Seoul Sunlike LED for household lights or something equivalent without a blue spike for NW and CW high CRI.


Quantity over quality. An insignificant increase in brightness (spex!) sells more vs better viewing.

Yep.

For home, I’m planning to get some 4000k 95+ CRI LED strips around my homework+PC+work bench.

I don’t like the fact that incandescent lights consume a ton of power, make my work place even hotter, and don’t have as good dynamic range as high CRI LEDs.

Depends upon the application. In some cases, warm white works best while in others a neutral white is preferable. While I enjoy warm white, too warm and dark orange-like is too much. My preference is a lower temp neutral white, like about 3500~4000k.

I have to wonder if the only reason why cool white still exists is because of legacy (early on, cool white ruled), cost of manufacture, conditioned preference, or belief that the slight bit of higher brightness makes a worthwhile difference.

Based on all we see on the marketing end, since most lower end commercial LED flashlights are targeted to an ignorant audience, perhaps a muggle looking at 2 lights see one claim 2,000 lumens while the other 2,500 lumens, and the higher lumens is actually a little cheaper, well then that must be the better value! Not…

I find color temps above 5000k to become unrealistic and color altering, plus a more penetrating glare. It pains me when a company like JetBeam makes a great light and the only choice of emitter is cool white. Maybe that’s why there’s such a surplus of lights they released over 5 years ago.

Interesting, but the current product range is too limited: four “only 3000K” COBs and two small 3030 mid power emitters at 0.2 and 1W rating.

Haven’t tried anything below 3000K, so I wouldn’t know exactly, but yeah, I’m not a fan of the tint of candlelight. “Incandescent bulb” (coincidentally 3000K-ish) is as warm as I can appreciate.

Not just that, their cool white LEDs have a painful purple shift. I had a BA20 a few years back and the tint sucked.

That’s the most popular answer, though I’m not sure I buy that. Manufacturers, especially of cheap lights, lie about their specs all the time. So, they don’t really need to use cool white to claim high lumens.

Maybe cool white emitters are just cheaper to buy in mass.

Yes mid power emitters but the seoul 3030 sunlike seems to have the same footprint as the nichia 3030 optisolis and Clemence has this MCPCBs

1 - VR21P4 (flashlight)
2 - VS35SP36 (household light)

I’m talking real numbers, not made-up claims.

At work, for close range i’m using two Jetbeam Jet-u modded by clemence with an optisolis 5000K and 6500K. It took me some time to get used to the CW, the NW is more pleasing to the eye but most of the time the CW gives me the impression to show “truer” colors (less “yellowish-ed”) with better contrast/separation. Red colors are a bit richer with the 5000K but there are tons of red shades in the 6500K optisolis compared to a CW CRI70, and the green and blue colors shades are excellent.
You should try to mod a flashlight with a 6500K E21A or optisolis to see how it looks like, we all get used to bad CRI CW, which makes the colors rendition of the high CRI CW hard to believe at first.

For my outdoors activity, I need to read IGN maps that are easier to read with the 6500K than with the 5000K particularly when brown/orange caracters are printed over green.

I find 4000k being a little “too warm” during the day and it kinda make the printout off-colored.

6500k also feels boring (bonus point when these are usually paired with low CRI). Everyone and their mother are using it where I live.

I find 5000-5500k suits me the best in most of the use cases.

It's a matter of perception, rngwn. Temperature can also affect mood, and overall light intensity matters. To me 4000K is fine, and for the bedroom I prefer ≈3000K. Coolest temperature I am using is in the kitchen, with measured ≈4800K out of a mixture of 5700K and 4000K emitters.