How to warm up a cool-tinted overhead light fixture?
September 14, 2024 8:52 PM Subscribe
If I buy full-color smart bulbs and play with settings on the very-warm-amber spectrum, is that likely to be enough to counteract the very cool blue-gray tint of the ceiling light cover in my apartment? More so than a "warm white" setting on a white-spectrum smart bulb?
I currently have white-spectrum smart bulbs in the fixture that are set as far as they will go to "warm white," as well as being at about 20% brightness. The blue-gray tint of the light fixture itself, however, is still making the light seem gray rather than amber. I have two table lamps in the room with amber not-smart bulbs and gold-toned shades, and I'd like the overhead to be closer to that. I really want the entire room to feel like it's lit by candlelight or a fireplace.
I'm renting, so I can't change the overhead fixture itself.
I currently have white-spectrum smart bulbs in the fixture that are set as far as they will go to "warm white," as well as being at about 20% brightness. The blue-gray tint of the light fixture itself, however, is still making the light seem gray rather than amber. I have two table lamps in the room with amber not-smart bulbs and gold-toned shades, and I'd like the overhead to be closer to that. I really want the entire room to feel like it's lit by candlelight or a fireplace.
I'm renting, so I can't change the overhead fixture itself.
Maybe? If I were you I'd look at reviews to find a RGBWW bulb (RGBA + warm white + cool white) compatible with whatever home automation system you're running that will allow you to set the RGB color/intensity piece separately from the tunable color temperature + intensity, then dial in red + warm white. I have some Gledopto LED strip drivers that do this (sold as "2ID" or "two device" LED strip controllers, since the show up as a separate RGB and WW fixture); not sure what's out there for bulbs. Even then, it might work to your satisfaction, it might not. There's enough variables here (including your perception) that I don't feel comfortable saying "yup, it'll work." If you're cost-sensitive, buy somewhere with a good return policy?
It might be easier to add additional floor/desk/etc lamps instead, and leave the overhead off? My apartment has 90s era compact florescent "designer" fixtures that can't take other bulbs, and in many cases I just leave the overheads off and augment with more lamps because florescent light's a bit crap.
posted by Alterscape at 4:13 AM on September 15 [2 favorites]
It might be easier to add additional floor/desk/etc lamps instead, and leave the overhead off? My apartment has 90s era compact florescent "designer" fixtures that can't take other bulbs, and in many cases I just leave the overheads off and augment with more lamps because florescent light's a bit crap.
posted by Alterscape at 4:13 AM on September 15 [2 favorites]
I really want the entire room to feel like it's lit by candlelight or a fireplace.
You're never going to get that from a ceiling fixture because the angles are all wrong. Get floor and/or table lamps instead and you can fit them with whatever light source and decorative shade you want.
posted by flabdablet at 12:04 PM on September 15
You're never going to get that from a ceiling fixture because the angles are all wrong. Get floor and/or table lamps instead and you can fit them with whatever light source and decorative shade you want.
posted by flabdablet at 12:04 PM on September 15
Response by poster: So I just mean "candelight" in terms of color and brightness. There's not really enough space for more lamps. My previous place had the same lamps with the same bulbs as currently, and dimmable warm white LED recessed can lights and it was perfect. I'm looking to create that again.
posted by lapis at 1:11 PM on September 15
posted by lapis at 1:11 PM on September 15
In my experience, you can't overpower existing lighting without the new lighting being a lot brighter. And in your case it'd likely have to be uncomfortably bright for you to notice a color temp difference; ceiling lights are typically designed to be maximally bright (for indoor lighting anyway) already.
Can you replace the bulbs in the ceiling fixture with something more to your liking? That's likely to provide the best outcome, and my experience as a renter has been that most landlords expect you to replace burnt-out bulbs in the overhead fixtures yourself anyway. Even if they used some weird compact-fluorescent form-factor you might still be able to find bulbs with a warmer color temperature these days.
Other alternative would be to exclusively use your own lamps (I like torchieres/standing floor lamps for this) and leave the overhead light off all the time.
posted by Aleyn at 2:12 PM on September 15
Can you replace the bulbs in the ceiling fixture with something more to your liking? That's likely to provide the best outcome, and my experience as a renter has been that most landlords expect you to replace burnt-out bulbs in the overhead fixtures yourself anyway. Even if they used some weird compact-fluorescent form-factor you might still be able to find bulbs with a warmer color temperature these days.
Other alternative would be to exclusively use your own lamps (I like torchieres/standing floor lamps for this) and leave the overhead light off all the time.
posted by Aleyn at 2:12 PM on September 15
If you increase the brightness by more than 20% does that change anything? This is where I would start. "Grey" light is usually dim light.
If making the bulb brighter doesn't change anything about the color, can you change something about they grey fixture? Does it have a cover? Is your ceiling painted grey, or blue, or a cold white? If that's the case you could repaint with a warm white.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:58 PM on September 15
If making the bulb brighter doesn't change anything about the color, can you change something about they grey fixture? Does it have a cover? Is your ceiling painted grey, or blue, or a cold white? If that's the case you could repaint with a warm white.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:58 PM on September 15
Response by poster: There's a frosted glass cover on the ceiling light that's a swirled faint gray and white. So any light coming from the ceiling fixture as it is will be getting a grayish cast because of the cover. I am hoping that if I put bulbs in that fixture and set them in the orange part of the spectrum, then the orange light going through the slightly-gray cover will come out closer to warm white. I just don't know enough about color theory, lighting design, or color changing bulbs to know if this is a valid idea.
posted by lapis at 5:41 PM on September 15
posted by lapis at 5:41 PM on September 15
If it is actually just grey, as opposed to blue-grey, then it won't be altering the spectrum of whatever light source is behind it, just lowering its brightness. So if you can find bulbs that make your room look the way you want it to when illuminating it without the cover in place, all you should need to do to get it right with the cover in place is to fit more powerful versions of those same bulbs.
The peaky emission spectrum typically provided by colour-changing bulbs will make the perceived colours of some illuminated items "pop" in ways that don't happen with the more even emission spectrum from bulbs with a better CRI (colour rendering index). If that's the main weirdness you're seeing when you try your colour-changing bulbs behind your frosted cover, the fix will probably involve just using a more powerful warm-white bulb with a high CRI and no colour control.
posted by flabdablet at 12:49 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]
The peaky emission spectrum typically provided by colour-changing bulbs will make the perceived colours of some illuminated items "pop" in ways that don't happen with the more even emission spectrum from bulbs with a better CRI (colour rendering index). If that's the main weirdness you're seeing when you try your colour-changing bulbs behind your frosted cover, the fix will probably involve just using a more powerful warm-white bulb with a high CRI and no colour control.
posted by flabdablet at 12:49 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: I ordered full-color smart bulbs. I wasn't able to find a bulb with the ability to separate color and intensity (that seems to exist only with strips), so I can just change the color and dim them. They have a "warmest white" setting that's warmer than the previous bulbs, which was pretty close to what I wanted, but I played with the colors a bit, too. By setting them in the deep orange range, while the fixture cover was on, I was able to visually match the other lamps in the room, and then I moved up toward the lightest shade of that hue till I got to where it looked relatively white. Looking at the glass on the ceiling fixture with the bulbs set there, it looks white but not blue-ish/cool.
So it ended up doing what I wanted it to do. Thanks for talking through some of the considerations. To some extent, realizing that there wasn't an immediately obvious right answer made me more confident in just trying it and seeing if it worked.
posted by lapis at 7:59 PM on September 19 [1 favorite]
So it ended up doing what I wanted it to do. Thanks for talking through some of the considerations. To some extent, realizing that there wasn't an immediately obvious right answer made me more confident in just trying it and seeing if it worked.
posted by lapis at 7:59 PM on September 19 [1 favorite]
just trying it and seeing if it worked
In my experience, that's almost always the right way to resolve any low-stakes issue because its side effect of improved understanding is so often worth what it costs. Glad you got a good result!
posted by flabdablet at 2:50 AM on September 20 [1 favorite]
In my experience, that's almost always the right way to resolve any low-stakes issue because its side effect of improved understanding is so often worth what it costs. Glad you got a good result!
posted by flabdablet at 2:50 AM on September 20 [1 favorite]
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