LED lights are what we use today. Today we have plethora of options and specifications to choose from which makes it even more difficult as every single light has a big impact on the space. The LED package will display lumens, colour temperature, power consumption per unit and colour consistency. Not all LED manufacturers will disclose CRI (colour rendering index). We will discuss these terms in this blog.
What are Lumens?
Think of lumens as a “new” way of knowing how bright a lamp is. Lumens = Light Output.
In simple terms, Lumens (denoted by lm) are a measure of the total amount of visible light (to the human eye) from a lamp or light source. The higher the lumen rating the “brighter” the lamp will appear. LED lamps produce more light with less power consumption. Other way to calculate their efficiency is to know lumen per watt in the same way as we do for a car kilometres per litre. So higher the efficiency, lesser would be electricity consumption and recurring electricity bill.
What is Colour Temperature?
With conventional lamps, choosing the “colour of light” emitted by a lamp was not a choice. But with LED products, there is a choice of colours, and choosing a colour will set the mood of your space. Or even better you can get different colours from the same LED light. Imagine a scale from 1000K (very red) to 10,000K (very blue) (actual scale is wider). The higher up the scale you go, the closer the light resembles blue daylight. New LED technology from Integral LED allows you to switch between 3000K (Warm), 4000K (Cool White ) and 5000K (Daylight). Choose the LED panel wisely depending on the mood or task for which a space has been designed. Confusingly, colour temperature does not describe the actual temperature of the lamp itself but the colour it produces and counter-intuitively; the higher the colour temperature the “cooler” a lamp will look.
What is CRI?
The colour rendering index is once again a scale to measure how accurately the colours are represented in that light. This chart measures a scale from 0 to 100, depending on how accurately it can produce light that matches a naturally referenced light source, such as the sun.
It’s best to choose LED lights that will make your surroundings clear, bright and as close to how they would appear in an outdoor, natural setting. To generalise-
- Warm to Warm white – living room, bedroom, hallway
- White to Cool white – kitchen, study, bathroom, cupboard, office, retail
LED lighting is the smart choice, and today’s LED bulbs are more varied and affordable than ever. There is also an increasing number of lighting manufacturers who have moved toward integrated LED fixtures. More options and informed decision is the key to dream home.
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