Warm dim is a powerful lighting option that you can utilize in your building. But how does it work? In this blog, we look at what warm dim is and how to leverage it for your space.
Back when your entire home was lit with incandescent light bulbs, you probably took for granted a particularly beautiful effect that comes naturally to incandescence… the warm dimming effect. Essentially, when an incandescent bulb is dimmed, the filament of the bulb cools down.
This cooling effect actually has a very pronounced impact on the quality of the light. Not only does the light become dimmer, but the color of the light begins to appear warmer.
It just so happens that, when used with incandescent light bulbs, this warming effect mirrored the color output that our bodies best respond to: The color outputs of the sun.
Understanding the Sun & How We Use Dimmers
When the sun begins to rise each morning, the Earth’s atmosphere filters the colors of the sun, creating a rich, warm glow all around us. As the sun rises in the sky, the colors begin to shift more toward the blues and crisper whites of midday. In the evening, the sun recedes, and the warmer lights return.
People’s use of dimmers is used to match this pattern (known as a circadian rhythm). It is only natural, when the exterior light is at its brightest, for people to brighten their interior lighting all the way up to compensate. Likewise, in the evenings, people will generally set a more mellow mood by dimming, and the old incandescent bulbs would follow something of an ad-hoc circadian pattern.
Fast forward to the more energy-aware bulbs of today, and we no longer have the happy accident of natural color shift in bulbs. Fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) in residential settings are rarely dimmed and often come in very bluish color temperatures. LEDs have made great strides, but until recently, only came in fixed color temperatures. This is a HUGE improvement over the ultra-white LEDs, and non-dimmable CFLs, but it’s still not good enough.
The Power of Warm Dimming
With the advent of circadian lighting, many have found the solution they desire. Brands like Ketra have beautiful lighting systems that mirror the sun’s light precisely, all based on your latitude and longitude. And while these systems are extremely powerful, many remain priced out of these types of whole-home solutions.
This is where Dim-To-Warm technology comes in. A dim to warm LED bulb automatically replicates the beautiful dimming quality of the original incandescent bulb, all while retaining the long life and energy efficiency of an LED.
So, what is this #1 reason for warm-dimming bulbs? Warm dimming technology helps create a calming, relaxing environment in your home at the end of a long day, and this environment links your state of mind to your internal body’s clock. Try putting your phone away for the night and letting your mind decompress in the evening. And allow warm dimming technology to help set the right mood. Studies by Harvard show that getting your mind, and lighting right for the evening can help reduce stress, help you sleep better, and increase productivity during the day.
Conclusion
Reach out to our team at Paratus Service Group to implement your warm dimming solution for a fraction of the cost of the whole-home systems. To get the most out of your warm dim technology, make sure you have a quality bulb, a compatible dimmer, and scene selectors to get your lighting levels exactly where they need to be.
