How to Choose the Right Colour Temperature for your Lighting

With the emergence and advancement of LED technology, so too does the range of colours. While LEDs are capable of emitting pretty much any colour, today we will be going over the correlated colour temperature, or CCT for short, options.

The Basics Of Colour Temperature

CCT is measured in Kelvin(K) and determines how yellow or blue a light is. Imagine a piece of iron being heated up; at first the iron will glow red or orange, but eventually as the temperature increases, it'll start to glow white and then eventually a blueish-white. CCT works in the same general manner.

Something that confuses a lot of people is how colour temperatures are referred to in words. A "warm" light does not necessarily refer to the Kelvin or the temperature the light is emitting, but rather how it looks. "Warm" temperatures refer to lights that look red, orange, or yellow, like a fire; whereas "cool" temperatures refer to blue and white.

How to Choose the Right Colour Temperature

First, you'll need to figure out what kind of atmosphere you want to create. It's also important to select lights that match the interior of the room. Wood tones complement well with warm lights and neutral tones go with cool lights.

A general rule of thumb is: use cooler colours in areas where focus and productivity matter like offices or classrooms, and use warmer colours in break rooms or dining areas.

There have been many studies made on how lighting can affect a person mentally and it's been shown that cool lights promotes concentration whereas warm lights increase feelings of relaxation.

Where LEDs Fall Into Place

LED lights are the most energy efficient and long-lasting lighting solutions available on the market and they provide more uniform lighting with little to no degradation in quality until the end of its already long lifespan.

If you're having a hard time deciding on which colour temperature to choose or if you need to adjust it to suit different situations, many modern LED lights come with the feature to adjust their CCT. These CCT tunable LED lights work especially well in situations where you need to change the colour temperature of your lights during different times of the day or to highlight different product displays.

Even armed with this information, seeing with your own eyes how a light looks in your space is an important step in the process. That's where we come in. By booking a complimentary lighting and energy audit with us, we'll come to your facility and work closely together with you to figure out the best lights to use in terms of lighting efficiency, quality, and colour.

Subscribe to our mailing list and follow our social media to keep up to date with our current updates or rebate programs.