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What is a Dim to Warm LED Lamp & Tunable White LED Lamp? What is the Difference Between the Two? | Kaoyi Lighting

  • tunable white LED lamp

  • dim to warm LED lamp

What is a Dim to Warm LED Lamp?

 

The color temperature of conventional incandescent lamps and halogen lamps would turn the color of lights while dimming the brightness from cold white to warm yellow as the color temperature changes from high to low.

As for LED powered luminaires, the color temperature would not be adjusted as we dim the lamp up and down. The color temperature will maintain roughly the same figure. For instance, the color temperature of a 2700k lamp would be somewhat the same under either 100% or 20% brightness. The figures tested would not be exactly identical but both would be very close to 2700k.

 

 

(1) Halogen lamp dimming

 

 

(2) LED lamp dimming

 

 

(3) Color temperature meter

 

 

It has been a long time since people bring conventional lighting to life. Humans got used to the connection of brightness and color temperature. Plus, for many applications in life users would prefer to create a cozy, relaxing atmosphere under lower brightness, as in a chilling chat after a meal. Under this situation, warmer lights are more preferable and suitable for the scenario needed. That being the case, the function of connecting brightness to color temperature in LED light source still owns a market nowadays.

 

Sharp from Japan is the earliest in developing this kind of LED chips.

By combining two color temperatures in a LED chip, and thus control the input current in the circuit, the purpose of controlling the color temperature of LEDs can be achieved, as shown in the diagram below. The term “Dim to Warm” is picked up due to the function with LED color temperature changing along with the brightness. The lower the brightness, the warmer the color. This is why we call luminaires with this particular function a “Dim to Warm lamp.”

 

 

(4) Dim to warm COB from Sharp

 

 

(5) Dimming change with dim to warm LED

 

 

(6) Demonstration of 2-set color temperature with 2000k and 4000k LED

 

 

Apart from the COBs mentioned, mixing two different color temperatures of SMDs can reach the same performance, as in the diagram shown.

 

 

(7) PCB with SMDs to achieve dim to warm performance

 

 

 

What is a Tunable White LED Lamp? How can we differentiate it from a Dim to Warm LED Lamp?

 

The color temperature and brightness can be controlled respectively with tunable white LED lamps, which works differently from Dim to Warm LED lamp, changing color temperature according to the corresponding brightness.

Let’s see an example to elaborate the idea of these two kinds of lamp. If we set a color temperature range of a luminaire from 2000k to 3000k, the one with Dim to Warm function will need to be dimmed down to the lowest brightness so as to achieve the 2000k color, whereas the one with Tunable White function can reach 2000k even at 100% brightness. As a consequence, more possibilities can be discovered with Tunable White LED lamps. The Dim to Warm function can moreover be carried out with Tunable White LED lamps.

 

 

(8) Adjusting color temperature at 100% brightness

with a two-channel dimmable lamp

 

 

The concept of human centric lighting is with a considerable growth of attention these days. Lighting is not merely to light up space, it can moreover affect emotions, work efficiency and eye health of human beings, which can do more than you can imagine.

Consequently, it is especially crucial to make good use of the function to control brightness and color temperature separately with Tunable White LED lamps, as well as to develop possibilities of the RGB multi-color LED applications. A most appropriate light color and brightness can be offered to users in order to achieve special lighting applications under a certain situation based on reliable research, such as NASA using red lights to adjust people’s biological clock and further help astronauts fall asleep when they should.