How to Choose the Right LED Lighting Product Color Temperature
Applicability: All LED Products
LED lighting offers many benefits and features that were difficult, if not impossible to offer with other lighting technologies. Many of the obvious benefits, such as substantial operating energy and cost reductions, longer life, and lower overall heat generation are generally well known. Another feature that allows for dramatic appearance and productivity benefits now and in the future, involves the color temperature of the light produced by LEDs.
Lighting Color Temperature Measurement Beginnings
“White light” is commonly described by its color temperature. Measuring the hue of “white” light started in the late 1800s, when the British physicist William Kelvin heated a block of carbon. The block of carbon changed color as it heated up, going from a dim red, through various shades of yellow, all the way up to a bright bluish white at its highest temperature. The measurement scale for color temperatures, which was named after Kelvin as a result of his work, was based Centigrade degrees. However, since the Kelvin scale starts at “absolute zero”, which is ‐273°C, you can get the equivalent Centigrade temperature (compared to the visible colors of a heated black body) by subtracting 273 from the Kelvin color temperature.
