By Jill Goulder & Neil Williams

Confused about lightbulbs and what to buy? Is it worth changing your existing ones for LED? 

Read this excellent new short easy guide:
LED Lighting: A Beginner’s Guide (2016)
by one of our local Eco Open House hosts, Jill Goulder.

And see below for some illustrations of LED ‘warm’ lighting.

COOL AND WARM LED LIGHTING SHADES

Information kindly provided by Neil Williams (2013)

LEDs come as ‘cool’ and ‘warm’, though there is an increasing spectrum in between. Cool is a very blueish light, unlike other lightbulbs, and has been described as cold and akin to moonlight. Many find it a bit off-putting, although some like its clear white light.  The most common choice is ‘warm’, which more closely matches halogens and seems more pleasant to live with.

The packaging is usually pretty indicative, with ‘cool’ being described as having a colour temperature of 6000K, whilst ‘warm’ is 2700-3000K. However, here I have to give a warning about colour, as not all ‘warm’ bulbs are the same (see Fig.1). As you will see, all those I found were generally acceptable, but one had a distinctly greenish yellow tone, which I didn’t like. The best also happened to be the cheapest, so price is no indicator of quality.

To try and give some guidance, I bought a selection of various LEDs I could find in the Lewes area and have compared the light from each. If you look at the photos below you will see what I mean. Although photos never represent colour perfectly, these give some idea.

WARM LED COLOUR VARIATIONS:

Fig.1 Comparison of different coloured ‘warms’ in kitchen setting

Fig.2 Modo vs HomebaseFig.

Fig.3 Tesco vs SETS

Fig.4 B&Q vs Homebase