Generally lighting seems to be overlooked by many home owners in Vancouver. How many times have you visited a friends house and sat on their couch to watch TV under blazing 5k or 6k lights. I suppose for some it does not matter, however from the perspective of the professional lighting designers, lighting can really change a space, especially in the dark winter months when we do not get as much natural sun light across Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.
Base Your Choice on the Desired Brightness
One of the most popular questions when home owners visit a store is asking what color temperature should they chose.
There are a lot of responses - some of them are partially correct, some are flat out wrong or right, but without really knowing why.
There are multiple considerations, but the right answer is surprisingly simple - You should choose the color of the desired temperature for your home lights depending on the light level (Brightness) that you want to achieve when you turn the lights on.
Kruithof Curve
There is a relationship between Illuminance (lux) and Color of the Temperature (kelvins) that is captured in what is called the Kruithof Curve. The graph tells you what temperature to use for what light level.
Unsure of what the light level is? There is a very simple formula that lighting designers use. Add up the lumen outputs of all your lights, the sum divide by the floor area (in lux). Keep in mind that the actual number will be a little less due to loss of light.
In most homes 2700k is used for bedrooms, bedside lights. 3000k is used in the main lights and most living spaces. 4000k is most popular on worktops.
For base lighting are recommended 3000k, task lighting is 3500k, but if you really need to see go big - 4500k to 5000k. The white light gives you the truest view and colors of your task.
