So, people find the daylight colored LED lights in your grow operation a bit harsh?
The study is from the 40âs, but at least one part of it still seems to hold up, which is that high color temperatures seem bluer/harsh at low illumination levels.
Also, daylight varies depending on the ratio of indirect blue light from the sky to the warmer, filtered light of the sun. âDaylightâ color temp for video lights is typically around 5500K rather than 6500K. You are using very blue daylight. So, not surprising that people find your lights on the harsh side.
BTW, LED bulbs subsidized or given away by CA utilities must meet the CECâs (otherwise-)voluntary âCalifornia Qualityâ standard, so that consumers donât get a bad first impression from utility-subsidized/giveaway bulbs.
That happened with CFLs - I still have the first free CFL the LADWP gave me when I recycled my Xmas tree. Itâs a cheap piece of crap. Ugly color, lotsa RFI, takes several minutes to warm up, blinks and makes buzzing noises when dimmed, etc.
People who first experienced CFLs as crappy giveaways were far less interested in paying for better CFLs when they came along, The cheap freebies actually slowed adoption.
So now, if a utility wants to promote LED bulbs with giveaways or subsidies, they have to be âCalifornia Qualityâ at minimum.
Which means that utility-subsidized brands in CA home stores are a fairly good deal. The CQ standard is a reasonable minimum quality level for LEDs replacing incandescents, and the subsidized prices can be very cheap.
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Seems like our eyes evolved in sunshine and therefore should be happiest with sunlightâs spectrum but whenever I install 6500K bulbs in my house people complain about it being âharshâ.
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Our eyes evolved with daytime sunshine. As light levels drop, the eye goes through a variety of adaptations including an increased sensititivity to blue and decreased sensitivity to red. (Purkinje shift)
Daylight blue-white, at the much lower levels of evening light-bulbs, will look way harsh compared with the same light at sunlight brightness, because of how your eyes adapt.
(This is also why blue LEDs are often so ghastly bright in the dark - Purkinje shift makes them look brighter than in daylight. Red is exactly the opposite - the eye âautomaticallyâ dims red LEDs at night.)
(Also, as @Skeptic notes, thatâs a pretty bluish daylight youâve got going there,)
The plants, BTW, love red and blue, but donât care much about green - they reflect green away, which is why they look green.
For LED growlights, red/blue combos are more energy-efficient than daylight-equivalents - though of course the plants look rather gothic. (-:
Cooler spectrum light has been connected with poor sleep patterns and cancer in females, so my theory is that shifting warmer at night is the better way to go. And, as long as the entire space is consistent, as for evolution your eye will never notice since it adjusts to see the âbrightestâ as white and adjusts its color temperature from there.
European standards are 4100K, but thereâs been very little research as to why, just how things broke down. Possibly the more northern shift and a desire to more closely match the cooler skies? Itâs a pretty narrow field of debate among a very small crowd.
Exactly. Warm 2700K colour temperature plus high CRI = great light. The ones we have are indistinguishable from incandescent. Itâs so worth paying a bit more (and itâs really not much more) for good quality lamps. Theyâll last tens of thousands of hours so itâs worth spending a bit to reap the full benefits.
I have to agree. We keep picking up new brands to try, and keep losing them way sooner than we should. Iâm kind of glad to know itâs not just my household!
I gave up buying low-cost LEDs after many tries. Currently I use Osram and Philips until the quality is more consistent. (not meant as testimonial, they are simply the two large house-hold names for LEDs here)
Both work fine for me, but I have only experiene with the 230V GU10 spots. I have totally no idea if different voltage and/or socket type make a difference.
The 3000K are whiter than I expected and since they emit light only from their northern hemisphere they make the bottoms of my paper lampshades darker.
