Which light is better: yellow or white? Lighting color temperature

In the modern world, the vision of each person is under increased stress: computer monitors, TV screens and all kinds of gadgets are constantly in front of our eyes, at work and at home. Therefore, many people who seek to compensate for damage to vision, at least where possible, are concerned about which light is better. In addition, the color of lighting affects the perception of the interior of the room, it can be emphasized favorably or, on the contrary, unpleasantly distort colors. It follows from this that even to such a trifle as light bulb selection, should be taken with care.

The effect of lighting color on a person and vision?

There is no need to worry about the relationship between the color of lighting fixtures and eye health: it does not affect vision.

However, the shade of lighting still has a certain effect on a person: to some extent, our psycho-emotional state and mood depend on it. Warm light promotes relaxation, cold light invigorates and keeps you in good shape, so each of them is good in its place and at its time.

Let's figure out which artificial light is better and more beneficial for the eyes - warm or cold white?

HELPFUL INFORMATION: Warm or cold light in the apartment?

No matter how many companies involved in the development of artificial lighting devices try to create a light bulb that is fully consistent in all respects with natural sunlight, to date these attempts have been unsuccessful.

Source color temperature

To find out what the light from an energy-saving or LED lamp will be, you need to pay attention to the color temperature value indicated on the package. The unit of measure is Kelvin (K).

The lower this value, the more yellow the glow will be. Light from a light bulb with a high color temperature has a bluish tint. The three most common lighting colors are:

White warm - 2700-3500 K.
Neutral or natural white - 3500-5000 K.
Cold white - from 5000 K and above.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: LED lamps: warm light or cold, what is the difference

Which light is better - warm or cold?

There is no direct answer to this question. It all depends on the room, the purpose and the lighting use case.

For example, the situation with the illumination of the picture: the mood of the canvas changes from the lighting, the shades play completely differently at different light temperatures.

The same situation with a bouquet of flowers.

And here is what the utility room looks like with different lighting.

Here is a good illustration of how the perception of colors changes depending on the temperature of the light. The palette does not change!

Conclusion: qualitatively, the color temperature does not change the lighting. But before choosing lamps, you need to understand what effect to expect, and where what kind of light is appropriate.

How to choose and buy lamps and lighting online without leaving home?

I prefer to buy lighting on AliExpress - it's very simple, convenient and safe. You can buy everything you need without leaving your home.

It's better than going to the store and standing in lines: first at the checkout, and then at the checkout. They bring me lamps and lighting fixtures directly to the object at the agreed time. So much more convenient and safer!

In the online store you can see the exact characteristics and real customer reviews.

Moreover, paying for purchases with your card, I get cashback up to 33% of the purchase amount and 8% on the balance monthly! Recommend!

It turns out a double benefit! I don't risk my health, I don’t waste time on the road, I receive the paid goods at the time indicated by me and I also save up to 33% on this.

Most often I purchase the following lamps (Rating):

LED;
Luminescent (energy saving);
Halogen;
Incandescent lamps;
Smart lamps;
Special (for plants, birds and animals, from insects, etc.);
Daylight lamps (for office and technical premises);
Retro (Edison lamps).

What is the best light for reading?

For comfortable reading, the illumination intensity should be around 500 lumens (500 lm).

Important Features:

The lamp must be closed from the eyes with a ceiling and have diffuser glass (preferably milky white) so as not to blind the reader.
The light source should be placed on the side of the person: for writing - on the left (for left-handed people, on the contrary), for reading - on the right.
The recommended distance of the lighting device from the book: to the side - from 30 to 40 cm, and above the surface of the table - from 25 to 30 cm.
The light should not be reflected directly into the face! Even if the source is in front of the reader, you should adjust the table lamp so that the light is reflected into the chest area or up.

And now about the color temperature of light for reading. It all depends on the lighting use case: what you read and when.

If a person, being in a poorly lit room, reads something for work or study, and it is important for him to maintain cheerfulness and concentration, then natural white light of medium intensity is suitable.
If the room is well lit, then the clarity of thinking and even resistance to seasonal depression will increase the cold white light. It will not be perceived as cold, but rather as a neutral white. The brightness should be comfortable so as not to strain your eyesight.
But if you decide to read a light book before going to bed, then normal and “cool” light is strictly forbidden to you. These shades block the production of melatonin (sleep hormone). Warm light is perfect for evening reading. It should be muffled, but of sufficient intensity so that the eyes do not strain. This light is soothing and helps you fall asleep easily.

What if, for example, the lamp on the table is used both during the day and in the evening, and even before going to bed? Do not buy three lamps for different occasions!

HELPFUL INFORMATION: Design options for a children's room

In such a case, there are lamps with different color temperature regimes and even with different luminous intensity. The photo shows an example of such a solution.

Useful advice: do not use a table lamp as the only source of light! Always turn on the main light, at least half the possible power. This will significantly reduce eye strain and make reading more comfortable and enjoyable.

Warm light

Warm white lighting with a familiar yellowish tint is comfortable and pleasing to the human eye, its glow is the same as that of yellow sunlight in the early morning or near sunset. It can be provided by both conventional incandescent and halogen lamps. You can also find on sale fluorescent and LED devices with warm spectrum radiation. Where is the best place to use this light?

HELPFUL INFORMATION: Organization of lighting for the interior of the apartment: spotlights and backlighting

In the living room. It is recommended to organize warm lighting in rooms where you want to create a relaxed and cozy atmosphere. For example, in a room where the family gathers in the evenings to have dinner and chat.

In the living room, it is best to install a diffuse chandelier.

In the kitchen. Warm lighting is perfect for the area above the dining table: the dishes will look more appetizing and more beautiful.
In the bathroom. Soft warm light in the bathing area will help you relax.
In the bedroom. It is in this room that it is especially important to create a feeling of calm and comfort so that the eyes can rest. Perfect for this bedside decorative lamps.

Warm spectrum lamps are used by designers to increase the color saturation of soft-toned interior items. Cold shades, on the contrary, will become less noticeable.
Blue and green colors will be distorted: this is due to the fact that there are no rays of the corresponding spectrum in the light from such a lamp.

Under such lighting, cool tones change as follows:

blue may appear greenish;
blue will fade;
dark blue will turn into black;
purple can be confused with red.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: Connecting a switch equipped with a dimmer

That is why you need to think through all the details in advance, before buying a lamp, so that the illuminated room does not take on an undesirable or even unpleasant appearance.

natural white light

Halogen, LED, and some fluorescent lamps produce light that is as close to natural white light as possible, so Colors are virtually undistorted. It is advisable to install them:

in children's rooms but not cheap fluorescent lamps, they flicker and can cause headaches;
in the hall;
in the working area of the kitchen;
in a place intended for reading, such as near an armchair or in a bedroom above a bed;
next to mirrors, as they faithfully convey skin tone.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: Making a children's room for a girl and a boy: interior design

It must be remembered that it is important to correctly position the light source relative to mirrors and reflective surfaces so as not to dazzle the person looking into them.

cold light

The light of the cold color spectrum resembles the white winter sun. It is often used in office spaces, as well as wherever it is necessary to create a working mood. It is neutral and cool shades that are suitable for those places where the presence of both natural and artificial lighting is expected, as these tones will help improve concentration.

A cold light flux is perceived by the human eye as brighter and more intense.

In apartments, lamps with such radiation are most often used:

In the kitchen, where accent lighting is required for cooking.
In the office, because such radiation balances and improves performance.
In the bathroom, in the wash area - cold bluish lighting will help you cheer up and wake up completely.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: Stylish bathroom design options: hi-tech, modern, Scandinavian, marine

In living rooms, it is recommended to use this spectrum when they have a modern design and a lot of free space.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: Modular paintings (12 photos) in the interior of the living room: modern style

Colors in such lighting are also distorted, but the changes concern only lukewarm shades. Red, orange and yellow colors will appear purple, brown and greenish respectively. But the blue and green tones, on the contrary, will look rich and juicy.

Note! The color of lighting is affected not only by the glow of the light bulb, but also by the color of its bulb, as well as the lampshade or ceiling.

How to choose lamps?

To choose the right light bulb, it makes sense to pay attention not only to the color, but also to its other parameters. All light sources used today are characterized by several features:

Operating principle. Allocate LED, fluorescent, halogen, as well as well-known incandescent lamps.
Flask configuration. The most common types are pear-shaped, spherical, tubular, mushroom-shaped and so-called spots.
efficiency. LED light bulbs are by far the highest.
Price. The cheapest light sources are incandescent lamps, the most expensive are LEDs. At the same time, the latter are environmentally friendly and consume much less electricity.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: LED lamps: warm light or cold, what is the difference

Color temperature range for different lamps

Halogen and incandescent lamps shine with warm light, while fluorescent and LED lamps can shine in a wide range from 2700 to 7000 Kelvin.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: Why does an energy-saving light bulb blink when the switch is off?

Color rendering index (CRI or Ra)

To understand how the room will look when artificial lighting is on, it is better to further clarify the color rendering index of the light bulb at the time of purchase. The letters CRI or Ra are used to designate it, ideally, this figure should be equal to 90 and above, this will allow you to see the natural colors of objects in a room lit by a lamp. If Ra is less than 80, the hues will be distorted.

HELPFUL INFORMATION: Selection of colors in the interior of the apartment

Comments:

Andrey

Eyes quickly get tired of cold light, but you have to use it when soldering parts in a table lamp. And with the protective cover removed (so brighter). With warm and neutral, I can hardly see the place of soldering parts. And so when lighting I prefer neutral 4000k.

Answer
Victor

I now voted for warm light bulbs. Because with the increase in the color temperature of the LED lamps, I experience insufficient illumination of the room. Even with neutral white light, I can already see things in the lower part of the room badly. And the cold light of LED lamps I see very badly. I see it dim. Therefore, the cold light does not invigorate me in any way. A warm light invigorates me. With it, I can see objects very well both at the top and at the bottom of the room. My vision works inversely to the temperature of the light of LED lamps. Ideally, I see in light with a temperature of 2700K, 4000K with difficulty, and I see very little light at 6000K and above. Therefore, I have to put warm LED lamps.

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Nicholas

Many thanks to the author. The article is very informative. No water and extra information. A lot of work has been done. Thank you again.

Answer
Vadim

Thanks for the article, I'm choosing a light bulb for my table lamp.
The lamp will stand at home, I will use it to write and read.
According to the data that I received from this article, I decided to take an LED light bulb with a luminosity of about 500lm and a color of 3500-4500K.
What do you think about this?

Answer
- ibuilder.decorexpro.com/en/
  
  Hello Vadim!
  Perfect solution! 🙂
  
  Answer
Arkady

My wife and I bought economical light bulbs in a new apartment, not really thinking about what kind of light it was - warm (it’s yellow) or cold. They bought different ones, in each room of their own, experimented like, yeah ... They screwed it in, after a couple of hours their eyes began to strain - in the living room you can go blind in the evening, in the nursery - as if under a spotlight. I read the inscriptions on the boxes, everything seems to be economical, and there are also differences, besides power, also in terms of flow. At the end of the week-long experiments, we opted for the brightest cold, and with warm yellow, some kind of despondency, melancholy appear, there is no comfort. So personally I am for the cold light!

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Rimma

Thank God, my husband and I have complete mutual understanding, both cannot stand the cold white light, it irritates and tires our eyes a lot. I have a single “white” light bulb hanging over the sink, I turn it on only when I wash the dishes. I can’t wait until it burns out))) And throw it away, someone is choking so))

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Igor Nikolaevich

For more than ten years I have had the opportunity to wholesale various light bulbs, including fluorescent ones. Accordingly, I listened to many different opinions, both from suppliers of electric lamp products and from end users (shop sellers also use light sources at home). In most cases, people agreed that a temperature of 2700 is comfortable for home, 4200 for offices, and no one wanted to buy 6400 - everyone said that they should only be installed in the morgue.

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Petrovich

And the yellow light of incandescent lamps or CFLs annoys me! Just annoying! I like lamps only 4000-5000 K.

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Anastasia

I hate cold light..associations with work or hospital. The whole apartment is cozy and warm light) harmony and tranquility

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Yuri

We use only cold light in our rooms, because the design of yellow does not fit in any way, it is painfully strict with us, and if you add yellowness, the view will be so-so, to be honest, and it is more familiar to the eyes.

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margarita

And for some reason I can’t stand the warm yellow light - it just starts to annoy and at the same time greatly distorts the design of the room in my eyes. Therefore, I prefer cold lighting, although my husband is not enthusiastic about this, white hits him in the eyes. We haven’t found a compromise yet, we walk around, we threaten to unscrew each other’s light bulbs) In general, I’ve been trying to balance the lighting somehow for a long time, so that there is something between cold and warm, but so far in vain.

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Ira

I think that warm yellow light is only acceptable in bedrooms. It can be turned on in the evening, because it does not hurt the eyes and even lulls. But the problem is that it distorts colors and that it is not bright. My eyes get tired quickly.
Therefore, in all rooms where you need to see everything clearly and strain your eyes, you need white light: an office, a kitchen, utility rooms. And table lamps must be with white light by all means.

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Egor Zharov

We did repairs in the apartment with my wife, we swelled a lot of money because of various things (important and not too important), but we forgot to think about the importance of light. We didn’t know that it had such an effect on our mood and so on. We bought the first bulbs that came across, but now we will think about this topic, after all, the warmth of the atmosphere in the living room depends on the warmth of the light)) I was very pleased that the color of the glow does not affect our vision in any way, otherwise I’m still an alarmist)))

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Oleg

I prefer cool white light. And preferably, nevertheless, high-quality matte incandescent lamps from European manufacturers. Like Siemens, Osram - these lamps are not cheap and quite high quality. Chinese housekeepers and LEDs are a lottery - no one knows how long they will work and whether they emit compounds harmful to the body during work!

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Viktor Kuntsev

In my opinion, warm light is really much more relaxing than white. I myself have repeatedly noticed that yellow light calms and creates the impression of comfort. No wonder they put white in the offices, otherwise no one would work!) Although in the photographs I like cold light more than warm light. We need to change the light in the apartment to a calmer one)
In general, a useful article, I'll go buy warm light bulbs)

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Olya

I don’t like the yellow color at all, I immediately associate with a scoop, and even if the walls are white, they become an unpleasant yellow tint, as if smoky. And in general, it does not illuminate well, it is generally impossible to do makeup under it. I buy fluorescent lamps, not very blue, and not yellow, my eyes don’t get tired of them, and they don’t change the stop in any way + if you take photos at home, they come out in a normal color, and not as if with some kind of filter.

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Alina

And I've lost in the pursuit of savings. I overdid it a little with the brightness of the light. Everywhere I have it is white, saving lamps. And in the bathroom, and in the kitchen, and in the hallway, and in the room. At first, the eyes even had to get used to it. Now the whole family has adapted. But the light of the old “Ilyich lamp” is still sometimes not enough in our apartment. And the warm light is more comfortable, it really relaxes.

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Tatyana

In my room where I sit at the computer, there was a cold light, and I was tired of it. When my light bulb burned out, I went and bought a yellow one. But I don't see anything with him. My keyboard is black, I can't see the letters properly with a yellow light, and that's it. I went again and bought a light bulb with white light, I see it with it. And yet, my favorite light bulbs are Soviet ones, which were called Ilyich's bulbs.

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Yuri

It seems to me that for different conditions and different light, for example, white is better in the office, but warm yellow is better in the room, it creates a certain atmosphere of comfort in the room, cold will never be able to give this.

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novel

At home we spend a lot of time in the kitchen, this is due to cooking and family dinner. Cold white was initially, but with a long stay in the room at the end of the day, the effect of such lighting was negative. But when they changed to a warmer one, it’s a completely different matter, you relax more, this is the only source of light, the TV and floor lamp were removed from the kitchen.

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Nicholas

My ophthalmologist diagnosed me with trichromate. Although I have 100% vision, there is a problem with color perception. I wear glasses that give everything a yellow tint - they help me out. And I try to surround everything around me in white colors. And yellow tones, yellow light, more than ever, relieve eye strain, not only for me, but for those who have normal color perception.

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Alexander

There is absolutely no relationship between color temperature and lamp flicker. It is necessary to look at the pulsation rate when buying light bulbs.

Answer
DuckDuck

Maria, fluorescent lamps flicker or low-quality LEDs
I am more comfortable with cold light and it is brighter than warm light

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Maria

I am a designer, and somehow, when choosing new equipment for the office of our Internet agency, I argued with the boss) he decided that we needed “cold lighting” so that employees would not fall asleep, and I said that we needed warm or neutral, because everything is all the same sit at computers that emit a bright (and often cold) glow. I generally have eternal pain in my eyes from flickering cold lamps. And the eyes are very important for work. They didn’t agree on which lamps to buy ... What do you think?

Answer
- ibuilder.decorexpro.com/en/
  
  Hello Maria!
  Unfortunately, there is no definite answer to this question. There is an opinion that the glow of small halogen lamps is the most harmless. We are talking about table lamps.
  If we talk about personal preferences, then I personally like the white light of LED lamps more. 🙂 I also spend a lot of time at the monitor ...
  
  Answer

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