Light Temperature

[alex2929]

I am debating between 4000 and 5000 temperature high bay lights. I am leaning towards 4000. It seems like 5000 is much more common. The inside of my shop will be primarily white. Am i over thinking this or what everyones thoughts?

 

[Bert_]

I like 5000*k when you get up around 100fc. At or below 75fc and 4000*k looks more natural.

 

[Jagmandave]

FC?

I wish you guys would write out what you mean instead of abbreviating - some of us would understand what you're saying better if you would.....

 

[ddawg16]

Foot Candles.....how much light.

Most of us want to think in terms of watts per fixture... but when dealing with LED's, we need to convert it to 'equivalent to' watts.

Another metric...Lumens...

It's a complicated world out there............

 

[bczygan]

5000

Bill

 

[Bert_]

FC?

I wish you guys would write out what you mean instead of abbreviating - some of us would understand what you're saying better if you would.....

It's foot candles, it's a measurement of light on a surface.

100fc is very good lighting for painting or detail work. Most of the layouts that platonicsolid does are 90-100fc

 

[yatg]

A fairly simple explanation of color temps:

"As such, you will find that the color appearance of a 4000K LED bulb is similar to natural sunlight during morning or afternoon hours. During mid-day hours, direct sunlight will have a color temperature over 5000K, and daylight (including the entire blue sky) will have a color temperature closer to 6500K."

It really boils down to what you prefer.

 

[ddawg16]

5000

Bill

I prefer 4632

 

[jkeyser14]

5000 looks too blue to me. I use 4000.

 

[cybrdyke]

alex2929, it's strictly your preference. Just like your favorite color...if you said red and someone else's was blue...you'd both be right.
There is no other rhyme or reason. There's no right answer. Amount of light doesn't matter, type of use doesn't matter. It's YOUR space, so use YOUR preference.
CD

 

[maplewood]

First post here. I just ordered lights for my garage, went with 5000k. I have some oddball bulbs I found for certain rooms in the house in something like 4300k and high CRI that I think are better, but for a garage I can't see spending as much as they'd cost. I've seen plenty of well-lit garages, some with obviously "daylight" bulbs, some with traditional 3000k-ish bulbs, both blow away a "normally" lit garage with 2-3 bare bulbs. Point being, I wouldn't overthink it too much. I wouldn't bet money on the cheap bulbs most of us seem to be getting being very accurate anyway.

 

[ddawg16]

First post here. I just ordered lights for my garage, went with 5000k. I have some oddball bulbs I found for certain rooms in the house in something like 4300k and high CRI that I think are better, but for a garage I can't see spending as much as they'd cost. I've seen plenty of well-lit garages, some with obviously "daylight" bulbs, some with traditional 3000k-ish bulbs, both blow away a "normally" lit garage with 2-3 bare bulbs. Point being, I wouldn't overthink it too much. I wouldn't bet money on the cheap bulbs most of us seem to be getting being very accurate anyway.

Good first post.....and welcome to GJ.............

 

[4xdog]

I'm a fan of slightly warmer light over cooler light, so 4000ºK for me over 5000-6000ºK.

But truly, this is whatever you like. There is no right answer but your personal preference.

 

[RegeSullivan]

Maybe it is purely a personal thing but I like 4000k and high cri in my wood shop since most of what I do ends up in doors. 4000k -3000k in living areas but for a garage I'd be less concerned about color temperature and more concerned about lumens per watt up to a point. I find anything over 5000k uncomfortable in a way I find hard to explain.

Sent from my SM-N950U using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[cvairwerks]

I've moved to 6000K or 6500K lights in my shop. 4000k is on the yellow end to me and makes it hard to do color matching on stuff.

 

[mike93lx]

i prefer 4000K

 

[Denwood]

I've moved to 6000K or 6500K lights in my shop. 4000k is on the yellow end to me and makes it hard to do color matching on stuff.

Higher CRI (color rendering index) lights tend to be in the 4000K to 5000K lights. If your shop has windows, you'll likely find 5000K is the best match.

If color accuracy is important, you'll need to do some research on the LED CRI and/or R9 values: https://www.alloyled.com/skin/front...ow-cri-and-r-values-measure-light-quality.pdf

A higher CRI indicates the average rendering performance, but R values and the other more detailed color rendering standards will give you a bit more insight into how well colors will be rendered under that light.

If you plan on painting in your shop and are buying new lights, I'd definitely shop for higher CRI lights!

 

[bikerneil]

You should use warmer colors like 2700 - 3000 Kelvin in your home, but the garage is best lit with 5000 Kelvin. All commercial warehouses are lit with 5000 these days.

A 5000 Kelvin light fixture will appear to be brighter than one at 4000 Kelvin due to what is known as the scotopic effect (basically the pupil perceives that there are more Lumens at 5000K than 4000K). White walls will look best with 5000K as well. If the space had other warmer colors you might want to think about a warmer light source - but the white walls will look stunning with 5000 Kelvin lighting.

 

[mike93lx]

You should use warmer colors like 2700 - 3000 Kelvin in your home, but the garage is best lit with 5000 Kelvin. All commercial warehouses are lit with 5000 these days.

A 5000 Kelvin light fixture will appear to be brighter than one at 4000 Kelvin due to what is known as the scotopic effect (basically the pupil perceives that there are more Lumens at 5000K than 4000K). White walls will look best with 5000K as well. If the space had other warmer colors you might want to think about a warmer light source - but the white walls will look stunning with 5000 Kelvin lighting.

"Best" is subjective. There is no definitive answer.

 

[Falcon67]

>"Best" is subjective. There is no definitive answer.

Exactly - Every bulb here is 6500K, no exceptions.

 

[cvairwerks]

Dennis: No windows in the garage, so only sun is if I have the door open. I worked for a number of years inside a facility where everything but the under deck and fixture lighting was sodium vapor. To this day, even an hour or so working in lights under 5000K gives me headaches and screws with my outdoor vision for hours.

 

[Denwood]

Cvair, sodium is my least favourite lighting...ever. I see that you've gone to 6500K which most would find too "blue". That said, you mentioned color matching, so hopefully their rendering index is high.

I did our entire commercial facility with Philips TL950 which are a high 98 CRI 5000K tube (fluorescent) and later swapped these out for a lower CRI Philips Instantfit LED. We had quite a few windows and skylights, so the 5000K was about perfect. Over 7 years, there were zero complaints from any of my staff or tenants on the lighting.

I had the opportunity to experience half of a 4800 square foot space with the TL950s, and the other half with the InstantFit LED Philips bulbs. The LED lit portion was definitely brighter, but the drop from 98 CRI on the Philips flouro bulbs to 83 CRI LED was pretty much impossible to visually discern.

 

[American Locomotive]

If you have enough light intensity, 5000k tends to mimic natural sunlight pretty well (provided it's a high CRI 90+ bulb) IMO. At lower intensity, 5000k (and 6500k) tend to feel really blue.

The main area of our barn is lit with ~4000k, while the workshop area that has much more light intensity is lit with 5000k.

It all comes down to preference though. Just be warned that cheap LEDs often list color temperature "ranges". You might see something like "4900-5300k" or "6100-6500k". That means they have poor quality control, and you could literally receive lights that are different colors.

 

[rlitman]

Higher CRI (color rendering index) lights tend to be in the 4000K to 5000K lights. If your shop has windows, you'll likely find 5000K is the best match...

Outdoor natural light can vary from as low as 4500K in direct sunlight to higher than 10000K in overcast conditions (moonlight can be even higher).

But you're absolutely right. CRI is cvairwerks' critical number when it comes to color matching. Halogen is well under 4000K, yet gives truer color than any LED I know of.

Cvair, sodium is my least favourite lighting...ever. There are no hard and fast rules on color temp, so you should go with what you find the most pleasant to work under. From that strong aversion to 5000K, I'd steer away!

I did our entire commercial facility with Philips TL950 which are a high CRI (90+) 5000K tube (flourescent) and later swapped these out for a lower CRI Philips Instantfit LED. We had quite a few windows and skylights, so the 5000K was about perfect. Over 7 years, there were zero complaints from any of my staff or tenants on the lighting.

Well, if you've got lots of natural light getting in, you probably won't perceive any loss from a low CRI bulb, as the natural light will fill in many of the gaps. At least enough to fool the eye during the day.

I've got an LPS darkroom light. That thing made for a BRIGHT feeling darkroom. But otherwise, yeah, sodium feels awful. It's that nasty glow that pierces dark corners right into your brain.

You should use warmer colors like 2700 - 3000 Kelvin in your home, but the garage is best lit with 5000 Kelvin. All commercial warehouses are lit with 5000 these days...

I prefer 2700K in bedrooms. I've got mostly 5000K lights in my garage.