Dumb question

Not a dumb question at all!  Lighting isn't as straight forward as it might seem.  5000k is roughly the equivalent of sunlight during a winter day and puts out light with a distinct blue hue.  For a warmer light 3500K-3200K is often preferred.  For comparison the old "light bulb" is about 2800k and renders pretty orange.  The other issue to consider is CRI or Color Rendition Index.  That is a percentage of how close a light is to pure sunlight.  The higher the percentage the better.  A CRI of 80 or above is good.  90 plus is available at a premium.

Hope that helps without getting overly technical!

If it is a work area, garage, work shop or such then the 5000 to 6000 Kelvin will serve you better.  6000 kelvin approximates daylight which is really nice when working on projects.  I get the tube with the clear covering, not frosted.  Inside your house around 4000 Kelvin with a frosted cover works well.

Thanks!

I am going through changing my fluorescent tubes to LED's in my basement where my layout is located and settled on 4000K LED's, but swapped panels from an opaque white to a clear frosted and like the effect; so you also have to consider whether the bulbs are going to be covered and, if so, with what type of panel.

If you go to the fluorescent/LED light bulb section of Lowes, most stores have a series of comparison photos in that area that show the difference in how various  "K" values make the scene look.

Although the "color" or "K factor" of the light is important, you should also look at the number of lumens produced by each type of bulb. The LED's I bought are 1,750 lumens which was bright enough for my use.

6000K

By the way the only dumb question is the one you don't ask.

We use 4000K LED's in our kitchen, laundry, garages and outside security lights. 4000K is a nice bright white light. And the 2800K in the bedroom ceiling and table lamps. 5000K can be too blue in some areas and don't mix well with other colors.

A really great question... and answers!

Jon

I went to Home Depot and obtained an adjustable light at 3000, 4000 and 5000 K. It is also dimmable. I will let you know how it works.

I just installed 46 led light fixtures in my basement. They are 6" diameter. I went with 4000k lights, which produces a bright natural light. For a shop light I would go with 4000k or even a 5000k light.

You may also want to consider, some of the LED's are dim-able, not all.   Recently noted that Exterior LED flood lamps seem to loose intensity a few LED modules at a time.

As noted below:  Lamps with multi color Primary LED's :   Magenta (Red),  Cyan (Blue),  and Yellow, can be controlled for different color combinations.  Something several years ago was an expensive project.

@NYC 428 posted:

6000K

By the way the only dumb question is the one you don't ask.

And the corollary to your statement: There are no dumb questions, just dumb people that ask them. 😂😂😂

This is a joke.  

It really depends on what you want to model. Time a of day, sunny weather ect.

I am going with led Par64 wash and spots dmx controlled. This will give me the ability to program a slow k shift from early morning to noon then sunset.

The spots will give single point source and a hard edge shadow like sunny days.

As a lighting designer when i was doing professional shows and the led technology first came out it would have been cost prohibitive but today consumer led stage lighting is so cheap the whole setup can be done almost for the price of a locomotive.