Post date: March 12th, 2021 by PA LED
4 Facts You Must Know About Color Temperature (Kelvin)
Before Buying LED for Automotive / Gaming Machine
Seeking for the LED bulb for your car, motorcycle or arcade gaming machines (slot / pinball)? Or starting to bulk purchase new LED bulbs for your potential customers? Even if you were not a first timer of LED, you might have to know more about the “color temperature” –what color temperature of LED bulb do I need under some circumstances? Does it matter for room or exterior lighting? This article will help you understand more about it and make a thoughtful purchase.
Content
What is the fact about color temperature?
1. Color temperature has nothing to do with temperature. Not the higher color temperature brings the higher temperature of lighting.
2. It is majorly defined by black body radiation visualization with measure unit, Kelvin color temperature (K). The experiment is stated below.
3. The higher color temperature doesn’t bring the higher brightness under the same power and voltage. The brightness difference is usually due to instrumental measure.
4. It can be illustrated via the spectrum of two polar colors– from blue and neutral white to warm candle color as our eye could recognize.
Figure 1. Color Temperature Spectrum (RGB Calibrated) / Source from techmind.org
The experiment that brought the definition of color temperature:
Heating up the standard black body to 5,000 Kelvin temperature (K), the radiation equals to the sunlight; again heating it up to over 10,000K, the radiation is observed as “blue and purple” color; cooling it down to 3,000K, it is like the yellow color. That’s how color temperature was defined with visible radiation.
Figure 2. Color Temperature of Auto LED Bulb / Copyright © PA LED
4,500K | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Appearance Category | Yellow | Warm White | Day White |
| Atmosphere | Alarming | Cozy, gentle and warm | Stylish, cool, and modern |
| Recommended for | Headlight, fog light and automotive interior |
Table 1. The Comparison of Different Mainstream Color Temperature for Automotive Lighting
What color temperature do I need?
Why is 6,000K or 3,000K headlight in majority?
Automotive LED Headlight
Figure 3. PA LED Headlight U9 Lighting Up / Copyright © PA LED
When you are browsing through the online shops, the mainstream & aftermarket white LED headlight is almost of 6,000 – 6500K color temperature everywhere. The sunlight is measured as 5,800K color temperature. Hereby 6,000K is ranged slightly cooler than 5,800K but both are “identical” from our eyes. For ease of mass production, 6,000K LED was determined by most of the LED manufacturers.
LED Headlight U9
Pros /Competitively priced, super bright (4,200LM), advanced heat-tolerant design, adequate base types
Cons /Less suitable for fog lighting than the yellow bulb.
Figure 4. Customers’ Review (click here) / Screenshot from amazon.com
We found that there was a customer who bought LED headlight of some brand commented that the headlight was not 5,000K, but more like 5,700K. In our humble view of that, 5,000K is between warm white and day white, where it is not so common in automotive LED manufacturing.
Automotive LED Fog Light
There are two major color temperatures for automotive fog lighting: 3,000K and 6,000K (or 6,500K). The 3,000K color is generally regarded as “yellow”, and it is preferred by drivers more likely to drive in the fog, haze or snow. According to the study (Blue Content of LED Headlamps and Discomfort Glare by Michael Sivak et al.), due to the shorter wavelength (higher light reflection) the 6,000K and 6,500K lights against the fog, snow or haze would glare, be fuzzy, produce blue-tone around, and so that make drivers’ eyes tired easier. In contrast, the 3,000K yellow light better breaks through the fog, haze, raindrops and snow in the air. It rather gives drivers clearer sight against the bad air.
Figure 5. 3,000K LED Headlight HL3 / Copyright © PA LED
Figure 6. LED White Fog Light vs. LED Fog Headlight HL3 / Copyright © PA LED
LED Headlight & Fog Light HL3
Pros /Competitively priced, fog highly breakable, heat-tolerant design, adequate base types
Cons /Less bright than white light
Ideally we strongly recommend you to equip a yellow bulb for your automotive fog light, but we have received positive customer testimonials of our white light, U9. Let’s see how our U9 worked as a fog light:
Automotive LED Interior Light
According to 1,500 random samples from terminal customers in Europe and America, 73.4% of the customers preferred the LED white bulb for the interior lighting, while 21.5% of them preferred the warm white, which is much less dazzling.
Figure 7. PA LED 9SMD 2835 4,500K Bulb Lighting Up / Copyright © PA LED
While we install LED interior bulb as a replacement of the halogen bulb, we not only strengthen the brightness but even think how light tone in our bulb should be. The majority of LED interior bulbs for car interior is 6,000K with base type T10, BA9S or festoon. We often recommend our customers to install day light white (6,000K) or warm white LED bulb for interior –front map light, rear light and trunk light. They bring more comfortable and soft atmosphere and make eyes less likely to be tired when people use smartphone and read books. Here is the research (Effects of Color Temperature and Brightness on Electroencephalogram Alpha Activity in a Polychromatic Light-emitting Diode (nih.gov)) shows the warmer lights make people more comfortable.
Want to know more about our LED bulb for automotive interior?
Unique Colors of LED:
beloved for Stereo, Coffee Machine, Gaming Machine and Auto Lighting
For the gaming machine players, they tend to upgrade their dim game lighting to be bright and colorful. Apart from the white and yellow, there are more color options for them, e.g., blue, ice blue, purple, red, amber, green, gold and what’s more. These unique colors of LED were made from color processing. For example, red and amber LEDs are accomplished with the plus material system “AlInGaP” and used by automotive brake light and turn signal light. Green, blue and ice blue LEDs are accomplished with InGaN and majorly utilized by game lighting.
Figure 8. PA LED Gaming Machine Bulbs Lighting Up / Copyright © PA LED
Figure 9. PA LED Bulbs for The Coffee Machine / Copyright © PA LED
Our sophistication of this processing accomplished the beautiful colors of lighting,
Want to know more about our LED bulb for gaming machine?
Conclusion
We knew that there are many sellers faking color temperature in their advertisement, and you might have purchased a LED bulb that its color temperature was not as the advertisement said. Nonetheless you have got an opportunity to get the well-calibrated LED product.
By the way, we invite you to browse our powerful and well-calibrated LED products.
Buying our products, you will appreciate:
1. Our tirelessly after-sale service for products & warranty.
2. Certificates guaranteeing the safety and durability of our products.
3. All of our LED is manufactured and assembled by our manufacturing department.
Get To Our Shop:
The most advanced, qualified and certificate-based LED products on sale. Automotive lighting / arcade gaming machine (pinball/slot) lighting. Shop now and get discount!
Are you business buyer or need bulk purchase?
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