When it comes to longevity and efficiency, LED light bulbs beat traditional incandescent bulbs to the punch. No wonder then most people have started using them instead of the latter. If you are a little late in jumping on to the LED bandwagon, here are a few things you should keep in mind when you shop for LED light bulbs.
Colour Temperature
Simply put, colour temperature refers to the appearance of light emitted a light source. The colour temperature is measured in Kelvins. Needless to say, different LED light bulbs may have different colour temperatures. Because a room’s look and feel get affected big time by colour temperature of the installed light source, it is important you pick a colour temperature that matches your needs.
LED light bulbs usually come in three categories of colour temperature — Daylight (5000K – 6500K), Cool White (3000K – 5000K) and Warm Light (2700K – 3000K). It’s not that one category is better than others; instead, each one is useful in specific situations.
Warm white LED light bulbs are super handy when you want to illuminate a room or a particular space within a room. These bulbs emit a gentle hue with a soft yellowish glow. This is perfect when you want to create a warm and relaxing ambient lighting. Since most people like to have subtle, homely tones in their bedroom, living room, and dining space, white light LED bulbs are frequently used in these places.
On the other hand, cool LED light bulbs are ideal when you want clean and refreshing tones. For this reason, they are a good choice for bright, contemporary homes. These lights complement modern decor far better than warm white LED light bulbs. These bulbs, thanks to their slight bluish tones, also are suitable for task lighting.
Here are some general guidelines for picking the right colour temperature for different spaces in your home:
Living Room
This is the space where you and your family sits back and relaxes. Therefore, go for warm light LED light bulbs.
Kitchen
Because this is one place where attention to detail is required a great deal, cool white LED lights are a nice option.
Dining Room
You can use both warm white and cool white LED light bulbs in your dining room. That’s because you may want to create a relaxing atmosphere but ensure that everyone at the table is attentive enough to enjoy their meal. Consider using a combination of accent lighting with a warm white LED light bulb and general lighting with cool white LED bulb.
Bathrooms
Because cool white colour temperature gives a clean, crisp feel, they make for a good choice for bathrooms. At the same time, you may want to go for dimmable LED lights for bathrooms. This way you can easily adjust lighting level as per your requirements, soft light for bathroom visits at night and bright light for putting on makeup or for shaving.
Hallways/Bedrooms
Going with warm white LED light in your bedrooms/hallways is a no brainer as it prepares you for a relaxing nighttime sleep.
Study/Office
Go with cool white LED lights in these spaces as they promote focus and attention.
CRI Rating
Another thing you need to check while purchasing LED bulbs is colour rendering index (CRI). This measures how colours look under a light source in comparison to natural daylight.
However, unlike colour temperature, CRI is not immediately visible. Given this fact, many first-time LED users ask: “How can I tell if the LED light bulb I am buying has a good CRI?”
Actually, this is not something that’s too hard. The CRI scale runs from 0 to 100. The higher the score of an LED light source, the better it is. Although a CRI 80 reading is considered acceptable, and that is what you get with most cheap LED light bulbs, you should always go for CRI 90 LED light bulbs. With these bulbs, you get a near-perfect level of colour accuracy.
Some of the main benefits of going with CRI 90 LED light bulbs are as follows:
- These bulbs give you the most balanced light. Because of this feature, prolonged doesn’t cause headaches and/or eye strain (In contrast, many people complain of getting a mild headache when they sit under a CRI 80 LED bulb for several hours on stretch)
- Nuanced colours, like those having a deep red component, appear natural (This is not the case with CRI 80 light bulbs)
- CRI 90 LED light bulbs are extremely affordable (So, even if you are on a budget, you don’t get any real cost advantage by using low-quality, CRI 80 bulbs instead)
While you should always use CRI 90 LED light bulbs, they are almost a must-have for areas where you spend a lot of time, like the living room, bedroom, and dining space. Since CRI 90 bulbs offer so much advantage and are pretty affordable, they are ideal for all residential installations. Unless you are someone who is extremely sensitive to light, you will gain little advantage by going beyond CRI 90. At LiquidLEDs, we only sell CRI 90 LED light bulbs because we don’t believe in comprising on quality.
Consider red led light bulbs for your bedroom
Are you having trouble falling asleep at nighttime? If so, it’s possible that over-exposure to artificial blue light is to blame. We are surrounded by artificial blue light, which is emitted by digital screens, electronic devices, and fluorescent lighting screens, and LED lights. In the case of the latter, the problem is really with low-quality LED light sources — that’s another reason we are a great advocate of using only CRI 90 LED light bulbs.
Research shows artificial blue light has an adverse effect on melatonin production. Melatonin is a hormone that helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle in humans. When the melatonin production goes haywire, either because of too much exposure to artificial blue light or because of some other reason, the person is likely to experience sleep problems.
Several studies have linked overexposure to blue light and sleep problems. For example, according to a Harvard study, melatonin production gets disturbed when exposed to artificial blue light. It is important to note that natural blue light (present in sunlight) is one thing, and artificial blue light quite another. The former doesn’t have any bad effect, while the latter can mess up your melatonin production.
You can cut down your exposure to blue light by limiting your screen time, particularly before going to bed. We also recommend installing red light LED light bulbs in your bedroom. Research shows that red light doesn’t impact the melatonin production. In red light, the body produces almost the same level of this hormone as complete darkness does, so it’s not disruptive for your sleep.