Blog: “Cheap as Chips” – the problem with cheap LED lighting
How to avoid the pitfalls associated with cheap LED lighting
Colour temperature
Colour temperature is a measure of how warm or cool light appears. It's an essential element in a lighting design as it has a huge impact on our perception of a space.
LED has improved massively over the years
Everyone has seen very cold blue-white light from LED lights but the better quality manufacturers produce chips in a lovely range of warm whites. Colour temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin (K). The lower the value, the warmer and more golden the light will appear; the higher the value, the cooler, more blue the light will look. Typically we are using light sources with colour temperatures of 2700K (very warn white) to 3000K (warm white) although we will use warmer or cooler sources to achieve specific results. Consider the two photos below taken from the same project.
Colour temperature helps us create the ideal ambience
The light source in the sauna is a very warm white supplied by the sauna manufacturer. We specified a very warm linear LED fitting to wash the textured wall without washing out the colour of the tiles.
The gym is lit with an invigorating linear LED system concealed behind coving running around the space. Specifying a cooler colour temperature creates the ideal workout environment.
Colour consistency is important
Whilst colour temperature should be a consistent measure in reality it’s not. One company’s 2700K can look distinctly cooler than anothers, or a 3000k can look pinker or greener. This is particularly true at the cheaper end of the market and is a good reason for not buying LED fittings or lamps without testing out a few first. We recommend only buying from a top quality supplier. Colour consistency amongst a batch of fittings or lamps is another differential between high and low quality LED. The manufacturers of the fittings we use in our projects ‘colour bin’ the LEDs very precisely, resulting in no noticeable colour difference between the LEDs in any batch.
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