Use of tints in LED lighting

February 5, 2024
Posted by admin

LED wall light in sauna, Use of colour tones in LED lighting

Althoughthe electric light bulb was invented more than 200 years ago, the development of electric lighting only entered a new era in the early 2000s, when the LED became a serious lighting fixture. LED has come a long way from Shuji Nakamura’ s laboratory to our everyday lives. Today, this technology is used very widely in a wide range of electrical appliances, from computer monitors to lighting and disinfection. Use of tints in LED lighting

How to apply

The design of LED lighting is primarily based on need and purpose. Today, the range of colours and wattages is already large enough to cover almost all lighting applications. (Lighting is the target here). Although LEDs still have their limitations (e.g. for the inside of an oven, incandescent lamps are still the only option), the new technology can be used to illuminate most objects.

The long, dark winter in the North places its own demands on lighting and the importance of different shades in everyday life is highlighted.

The effect of different shades of light on human mood is a fairly new area of research, but we are quite familiar with its effects, even if no scientific basis has yet been found.

Light intensity and sufficient quantity are also very important criteria in lighting design.

Warm white

Warm white light is very popular in the north because it does not contrast too strongly with the otherwise pitch-black surroundings. Warm white (2500-3300K) is used to decorate fir trees and illuminate saunas. Yellowish light is good for the evening, when you can enjoy a warm drink, read and get ready for bed. This is because it signals the brain to produce melamine, so you start yawning after a while.

In shops, a yellowish light is used to illuminate bread shelves to make them look more inviting. The meat and cheese counter also looks juicier when lit with warm light. At home, meat or ham can look a lot paler than the shop counter would suggest. It can also be an optical illusion if your hob is lit by fluorescent tubes. Restaurants often use the lowest possible colour temperatures to achieve an old-fashioned, homey feel, if it fits the theme of the restaurant.

Warm white LEDs have been one of the most challenging products in lighting. In reality, the LED does not produce a yellowish light, but is produced by the properties of the envelope. That’s why the first generations were sometimes reddish, sometimes greenish and whatever. A warm white shade suddenly takes on a completely different hue when its colour rendering index is raised to near 99. The funny thing is that incandescent light is supposed to have a colour rendering index of 100. However, an incandescent light bulb is hopeless if you have to work carefully to distinguish between closely spaced parts of different colours. For example, resistors used in the electronics industry are indicated by colour lines. Reading millimetre-spaced lines in incandescent light is very difficult, if at all.

Some importers of LED lighting have barely even got to the colour rendering index, but in reality, warm white light should have been R9 for years. R9 affects the red colour for a second time. In most cases, it is hopelessly low, and can even be negative. A good R9 with a warm white LED is over 50, in practice you can’t get over 95. R9 affects e.g. to reproduce the colour of your skin, to view photos. The low R9 makes the skin look pale despite the warm tone of the light.

Daylight

Neutral white (4000-4500K) is the first step towards daylight (5500K). Some people have great difficulty accepting colour temperatures other than the yellow of an incandescent light bulb. In these whiter shades, the colour rendering index of light plays an increasingly important role. If at first glance the light appears pale, albeit bright, its index may be quite low. Prolonged exposure to such light may also cause headaches for the most sensitive. The explanation for this phenomenon is that the eyes are constantly working extra hard to correct the colour error caused by the wrong spectrum. The high colour rendering index light rests the eye, making it the best light for working, after all.

When testing people’s preference for the hue of light with a device that allows infinitely variable adjustment of colour temperature, surprisingly most people stop at around 4000-4200K, assuming the light is of the same spectral quality across the spectrum.

With daylight-tinted, high colour rendering index LED light, all colours look brighter and more vibrant, just as they do in summer sunlight. This hue can be called a motivational light. It wakes up your brain for the day and gives you a kick-start to your thoughts. Even after a long day at work, the workload doesn’t drop so dramatically when you can work in an environment with good quality light.

In winter, when sunlight is scarce, you can brighten up your day by getting a daylight lamp or lighting for your house. It will pay for itself many times over the years if the house also serves as a place to earn an income.

The shops illuminate the fruit and vegetable sections with neural white light. It makes the goods on the shelf look more mature and in better condition, but it also makes it easier to spot mistakes. So there is less risk of buying rotten hay. In some shops, all the lighting is already done by daylight. It’s customer-friendly, because then the goods look like the colour they really are. This is particularly the case in the fitting rooms and cosmetics departments.

Cold white

This shade is pale and bluish (6000-6500K). It is no longer used even in operating theatres. This tone gives the brain a turbo start, a bit like a cold start in a car. It’s a good boost for a while, but in the longer term it can make your brain go into overdrive. That’s why many mobile devices have a blue light filtering function. It is not recommended to use this type of lighting in the evening, as it disturbs sleep as effectively as boasting in the morning. As such, the use of bluish light is unnecessary, as neutral white light and daylight do the same thing more gently, but just as effectively.

In some shops, cold light is used to illuminate fish counters because it makes them look fresher. However, fish with red meat, such as tuna fillets, should be illuminated with a warm white light. In bluish light, a person looks as dead as a fish lying on the counter, so such lighting is not recommended for clothing stores if you want to keep your clientele.

Office lighting

Workplaces have even different lighting requirements. The UGR value measures the glare of lighting. It should be 16-19 in offices and 22-25 in industrial premises. The technical information provided by the luminaire manufacturer indicates the UGR value that can be achieved by the luminaire, which is influenced by the size and shape of spaces and the reflectance of surfaces.

Interior solutions

LEDs can now be used to make lighting for any purpose. They have enough power and endless variations for different tastes and solutions.

When needed, all shades of white can be immersed in the same lighting: cool white for a power boost in the morning, daylight for work and warm white for an evening mood. RGB LED lights give an old-fashioned disco feel for a small price.

Lighting design is a point where you should definitely consult an expert, especially if the luminaires are built-in. Once well designed, LED lighting will bring joy to your home for the next 10 years. The new technology can be easily adapted to a wide range of interior design solutions.

State-of-the-art lighting is also usually the most energy efficient and longest lasting. According to current statistics, the maintenance needs for installed LED luminaires (e.g. for proper sauna LEDs) in about 8-10 years, when old LEDs will have to be replaced. Of course, there are exceptions in one direction or another. Even in Finland, some years ago, LEDs for saunas were marketed that did not even last a year.