# Forum Home Renovation General Odds & Sods  Warm or Natural white LED downlight?

## JB1

Hi, 
I'm building a new house and have decided to install LED downlights to all rooms of the house. 
I've sort of gone overboard with the number of downlights.  
I'm going warm white for the bedrooms and natural white for the bathrooms. 
Now, what colour spectrum light do people prefer for the living/kitchen area? 
I'm going to use the Wattsaver DL7-1400 which I have tested and are very impressive. 
I purchased a sample of both Natural white and Warm white/  
I will install dimmers in the lounge room as it may be overly bright.  
Natural white is 3800k-5000k
Warm white is 2600k - 3800k 
I'm don't like Cool white 5000-8000k. It reminds me of the office I work in.  
I prefer Warm white for the living and kitchen area, the wife prefers Natural white.  
What colour do people prefer, I will sell the house one day so would prefer the more popular colour. 
Here is a photo of the kitchen   
The colour of the paint is a light warm grey, kitchen is 2 pac white and flooring and timber spotted gum. 
While  I prefer Warm white, I will be more than happy to live with Natural  white (but not Cool white), but I'm worried Natural white will make it  look too cold and uninviting. 
I also have LED strip lighting under the overhead cabinets and pendant lights over the kitchen bench so will buy either warm white or cool white lights to suit the downlights.

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## Uncle Bob

Warm white gets my vote (similar colour rendering to incandescents).
I do like that stairwell  :Smilie:

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## JB1

Thanks for your opinion Bob  :Smilie:  
I opened up the stair case wall, otherwise it would look too narrow.  
It's a narrow but steep staircase.  
Oh yeah, the Wattsaver claims a Colour Rendering Index of 90.

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## johnc

I've opted for cool white (natural white) in the kitchen area for brightness and I prefer the colour. We had tried warm white compact fluoros but went to cool white when we changed to LED. To be honest I think it is what you are used to, initially we didn't think we would like the harshness but quickly adjusted and now aren't to keen on the warm white when we enter others homes.

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## METRIX

We had cool white 5000k, and these were TOO white, remind me of a fish shop with fluros, We changed to warm white LED, and these are much nicer.

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## JB1

Johnc, wattsaver claim the warm white has the same lumens as the natural or cool white, so brightness isn't an issue. 
Metrix, to complicate things, natural white is half way between warm and cool at 3800 to 5000k. 
With the houses you build, what % go for warm white compared to cool in the kitchen and living area?  
Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk

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## METRIX

> Johnc, wattsaver claim the warm white has the same lumens as the natural or cool white, so brightness isn't an issue. 
> Metrix, to complicate things, natural white is half way between warm and cool at 3800 to 5000k. 
> With the houses you build, what % go for warm white compared to cool in the kitchen and living area?  
> Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk

  Natural may be ok then, but if it's getting towards 5000k then might be too white. 
The only area we have put cool is in kitchens, but majority still want Warm, as these blend in with their other lighting in the house. 
We have cool led in the outdoor up/down wall lights as these look really crisp on the dark painted walls, but we found it a bit to clinical in the living areas.
But the Natural may be the go. 
BTW kitchen looks good, nice and open, post some pics when you choose the color LED.

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## johnc

with matching brightness and the natural between warm and cool I reckon we would have been keen on natural. We have off white ceilings, light grey walls, timber floors and off white kichen and benches. The wood breaks the harshness of the cool white.

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## JB1

I checked again and the natural white colour is 3500-5000k, So you can say it's an average of 4250k 
Warm white average is 3200k 
Here is a sample of a photo I took in my current home, 2.55m ceilings, lights on the floor pointing directly upwards. 
Natural  
Warm   
Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk

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## Ozcar

> . . . the wife prefers Natural white. . . .

  So you knew the answer all along then.

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## shauck

> So you knew the answer all along then.

  Yeah, but they are wanting to know what others prefer, for re-sale.

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## Moondog55

As a professional cook I don't yet see LED lights as being suitable for kitchens as they do not give as accurate a colour rendition as the older full daylight fluorescent lights, it's only a personal opinion tho and in the short term I would select the lighting you personally prefer. 
Even the full daylight flouros don't have quite enough UV for true colour rendition but are the best alternative cost wise ATM

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## JB1

Moondog, 
I have never heard of full daylight fluorescent lights, nor does Google yield any useful info on 'full daylight fluorescent lights' 
I know that accurate colour rendering is very important in a kitchen, the better the food looks, the better it tastes  :Smilie:  
What lighting do professional kitchens have? 
I know that you want a Colour Rendering Index of 100, which can be found in halogen and incandescent lights. 
Conversely that's why I dislike CFLs, especially cool white, as the CRI may be less than 80, it makes everything look dull (even though it is bright) and artificial.  
The LEDs I'm purchasing have a CRI of 90, which is very good, but I'm sure LEDs will continue to improve over time.  
I've compared the warm white LED with my 12v MR16 halogen, while the LED is slightly less crisp, surprisingly it's much brighter.    

> So you knew the answer all along then.

  lol... actually, for once, I have the final say in this matter.     
And, at this stage, I think I have made up my mind and leaning towards the warm white.  
The wife wants Natural white for the bathrooms, so I'll install them there, and warm white everywhere else.

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## David.Elliott

Triphosphor Fluorescents  T5 Tri-Phosphor Fluorescent Tubes (25 Pack) 
Are used widely in the printing game as they render the truest match to natural sunlight and are so used for colour matching consoles on big printing presses... 
I have 'em in my shed, (they followed me home from my old printshop). Lots of really great light and they are claimed to last much longer. My experience so far bears that out... 
there was a bloke here in Perth that went door to door, installing these in printshops, going back to test output, as thats REALLY important in print, and swapping them out...for newies... Great little business, killed by the death of the print industry in Australia... 
david

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## JB1

Thanks for the info David, I never knew these rendered close to sunlight.  
I've never cared much for Fluro tubes in the home, nor can I remember seeing any in display homes. 
While they are bright, they scream 'commercial' to me. 
I will have 4 of them in my garage  :Smilie:

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## Moondog55

DA beat me to it and those are what we have in our current kitchen and what I will want in the new one, Kitchens are "Commercial" spaces if you like to cook. I can see ours in oversized  flanged recesses tho

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## Moondog55

Full Spectrum Lighting, Vita-Lite - Naturallighting.com  Amazon.com: Full Spectrum Light Bulb - ALZO 27W Compact Fluorescent - Case of 4 - Daylight Balanced 5500K - Pure White Light: Camera & Photo

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