Should You Choose Warm White Vs. Cool White For LED Lights?

Are my LED lights warm or cool?

LED lights can either cast a warm or cool glow, and you may not have realized which types of bulbs you bought in the first place.

To help you sort it out, walk around your house one room at a time and ask yourself the following question: are the LED lights warm or cool in this room? In other words, do they give more of a sunny, yellow vibe or do they look more blue and bright?

Here is a great example of the lights in my home after I started updating them. On the left, you'll see the daylighting and, on the right, you'll see the warm overhead lighting in the kids’ study station.

Here's another example in the background. There, you'll see one warm overhead light right next to the daylighting that I had already installed.

Cool white vs. warm white LED lights

Dr. Jason Littleton recently shared a blog on how you can be happier, more productive, and even more focused simply by changing the lighting in your home.

Choosing between cool white vs. warm white LEDs does make a difference, and you should be aware of how your decision affects each space.

I honestly have always been a fan of warm lighting until recently when I started updating some of our furniture in the bigger rooms, and I started to notice a very orangey type glow in the kitchen and on the catwalk.

Then, I started looking back through pictures and videos, and I realized how dated everything looked with the orange overtone in all of the clips.

After reading Dr. Littleton's blog, I got to work right away updating our lighting from warm to cool in the kitchen and other common areas.

I started by replacing our G8 120-volt underlighting bulbs with LED bulbs that were rated at 6,000 Kelvin.

Warm vs. cool LED bulbs

Here's what they look like side by side. The old lights are on the left and the new LED lights are on the right.

The Kelvin scale

Color temperature is measured by the Kelvin scale which is the physical science's quantitative means to scale thermal motion. The natural color of daylight is approximately 5,600 Kelvin.

Above, you'll see a very nice side-by-side comparison. On the left, you'll see the daylighting, which is rated at about 6,000 Kelvin and, on the right side of the screen, you'll see the warm lighting which is rated at about 3,000 Kelvin.

Benefits of an LED daylight bulb

According to Dr. Littleton, changing the light bulbs in your environment to an LED daylight bulb can provide a brighter environment, stimulating creativity, improved energy, and higher focus.

It's another simple way that a small change can make a ton of difference in your life regarding productivity and happiness.

Overhead vs. ambient lighting

I opted to update all of our overhead lighting to daylighting and to keep our ambient lighting, like all the lamps, warm lighting because I think it sets a nice relaxing tone for the evenings.