What is the difference between Warm White and Cool White of led color?

If you want to replace your old, traditional incandescent or halogen lights with LED lights for your kitchen, or if you are planning on building a new kitchen with under cabinet lighting, you need to choose your light colour. If you are not yet familiar with LED technology or have seen confusing terms such as "3000K vs 4000K" then this article will make you fully informed. We’ll discuss the difference between warm white and cool white LEDs as well as the ideal situations when you should use them. First, let’s take a short look at what LED is all about.

LED Colours

Technically, LED chips can be made to emit a specific light color and from the red, blue, yellow, and pure white light spectrum.  This is why LED technology is applied to various applications.  The terms warm white and cool white are references to the low and high end of this white light color spectrum.

Warm white - is a comfortable white color that is used in living areas and residential applications.  It is what we are used to in Australian households.  More than 95% of domestic lighting is warm white and most households opt to install 100% warm white.

Cool white - is an artificially whiter light that is normal in retail shopping centres, offices, and useful in household work areas like laundries and garages.  Cool white, and it slightly less harsh "Natural White", are much lower demand than warm white for domestic use.

The technical measurement of light color is in Kelvins, and this is discussed below.  As many LED lights are sold with a Kelvin color specification it might be useful for you to read our simple explanation of the Kelvin light color scale below.

 

The Kelvin Scale

LED color temperature is measured using the Kelvin scale represented by numbers followed by a “K”.  Manufacturers and retailers can differ in their definition of the light range titles, but typically:
 

• • Warm White is around 2700K to 3500K,

• • Natural White is around 4000K to 4500K,

• • Cool White is around 5000K to 6500K.

As an example, consider the color temperature of other light sources:
 

• • Candle flame: around 1850K

• • Traditional incandescent lights: around 2700K to 3300K

• • Moonlight: around 4100K