How to Make LED Lights Look Warmer? 5 Methods

To make your LED lights look warmer the most effective method is to use orange color gels. For the warmer glaze, you can paint the LED bulbs. Uses of cellophane, yellow stripes, and Kapton tape are also very impressive methods to warm up the LED lights.

Nowadays, we see the use of LED lights everywhere- in our homes, office, parking lots, playground, etc. And we often heard the problem that the LED light is not warm and too shiny. There are so many ways to fix these problems.

Let’s see what are those.

Why Do We Need Cooler or Warmer LED Lights:

Before solving the problem it’s important to identify exactly what so bothering about cooler light and what’s the purpose of warmer LED lights.

In touch with warmer LED lights, our circadian rhythm feels relaxed. Warmer lights are also known as the lights of evening and morning. It provides us with calm, cool, relaxing, peaceful light beams.

On the other hand, the cooler temperatures LED lights provide an alert and energetic vibe. It waves prevent the production of melatonin in our bodies. This melatonin control sleep and waking cycles.

You may find it very difficult to sleep or take a rest where cooler temperatures LED lights are on and that’s why we need to make our LED lights warmer.

Measure How LED Light Temperature Changes The Color:

To realize the process of making LED lights warmer, it’s important to learn how light temperature changes color. Then you will able to understand the concept clearly. Let’s see.

Those bulbs we will make look warmer are mostly white LED lights. These white LED lights have so many categories and they come with so many different temperatures.

To measure the temperature rate degrees we use Kelvin (K). The kelvin range of most white LED lights is 1000k to 10000k.

Now, light that has a kelvin range of 2500k to 3500k is usually warm. This sort of light provides yellowish and red color beams.

On the contrary, when the kelvin temperature becomes high, usually up to 5000k, it gives off bluish wavelengths from the lights. These are cooler temperatures LED lights.

So, low-range kelvin lights produce yellowish or red colors which are warm or soft LED lights. And lights with a high kelvin range produce blueish color which is cooler LED lights.

How To Make LED Lights Look Warmer:

Before starting one last thing, it’s better if you know specifically why you want to make LED lights look warmer.

For example, do you want to change it for permanent or temporary purposes, is it for a photoshoot or other programs, and things like that? Cause for different purposes we use different methods to get the best results. I will talk it through while discussing the methods.

Let’s start.

1. Use Filter Gels

Using filter gels is one of the easiest, most effective, and most used methods of converting LED cool lights into warm LED lights. We use this when we need to change the color temporarily.

Filter gels are usually thin transparent sheets that fitted in front of the LED light lens. To make your light look warmer you will need orange or red gels.

These gels are known as color temperature orange or CTO. These CTO comes with long sheets.

To convert the LED lights into warmer temperatures all you have to do is cut the CTO in your LED lens size. And then inserted the CTO in front of the LED. Remember, you won’t need any glue or tape to attach the CTO, it will automatically set with the LED.

Depending on the CTO amount, you can make your LED light slightly warmer, completely warmer, or just neutralize the cooler temperatures. Here, let me set an example for better understanding.

The LED light we will use for the experiment holds temperature degrees of 6000k. It gives off bluish color and is quite cool.

We will take four gels with different levels of transparency.

• 1/8 CTO
• 1/4 CTO
• 1/2 CTO
• 1 or full CTO.

The numbers indicate the transparency level of the filter gels. With 1/8 gel, the light can transparent the most around 92%. And with full or 1 gel, the light can be transparent the least, around 47%.

Now, if you applied 1/8 gel then it will make the LED look slightly warmer. The temperature of the light will be around 5000k which is pretty cool. The use of 1/8 or 1/4 gels reduces the cooler temperatures by a lower amount. It mostly puts the LED in a neutral position.

Now, if you applied the full gels then the kelvin rate will come between 2600k to 2900k. You will be able to notice how the bluish color changed into yellowish. 1/2 or full gel is used to make the LED looks warmer.

2. Paint the LED

Another cheapest solution to give your LED lights a warmer look, you can use the painting method. It’s very simple and most probably the items you need are available in your home.

Paint the outside of the LED lights body with orange or yellow color. The orange or yellow paint will convert the white LED lights into a warm and ambient color.

But one has to be very careful while using painting techniques. If you use too much paint and make it opaque then it may make the bulb completely dark by reducing all of its brightness.

Plus, paints are flammable, you need to keep in mind that. A LED light doesn’t produce much heat. However, when you will paint the LED light glass then this will produce a lot of heat and ultimately it will shorten the lifespan of your LED light. So, be cautious while using painting methods.

3. Use Cellophane

A cool and easy way to have a warmer-looking LED light is by using a cellophane. Cellophane is a very thin transparent paper.

Buy some yellow color cellophane and wrap it around the bulb. It will reduce the emitted lights kelvin and will give the light a warmer look. But keep in mind that with cellophane you won’t be able to make huge changes.

4. Use Yellow Stripes

This method works perfectly if you want to change the temperature of the “LED stripes light”.

After buying LED stripe lights if you find out that they are emitting too much brightness then what can you do to fix it? In this case, you can go for this technique.

Buy a few more yellow color stripe lights, cheap ones will do the work too. Now, attach these new yellow LED stripe lights under your previously bought LED lights. Combination of these two lights will create a warmer light temperature in your room.

5. Use Kapton insulation tape:

Kapton insulation tape comes very handy for warming up LED light temperature.

Buy Kapton insulation tape and warp it over LED lights. This will block the blue components of your white LED lights and will make them look warmer.

Kapton tapes are flame resistant and you can easily remove them any time you want. This tape doesn’t leave behind any residue.

Have LED Lights with both Warmer and Cooler Features:

Uhuu, isn’t it would be cool if you have LED lights that have both warmer and cooler features? Obviously, it will be a great help. Then you will be able to change the LED light’s temperature to cool or warm anytime you want.

Let’s see how could you have both warmer and cooler LED lights at the same time.

1. Buy Color Temperature changing LED lights:

There are so many types of multicolor LED lights available on the market and these bulb’s temperature is controllable.

Buy LED bulbs that can change the temperature. Some bulbs change the temperature automatically with a motion sensor. You can control these bulbs’ temperature with your mobile phone apps too.

2. Install a Dimmer:

Installing a dimmer is a pretty good idea to control your LED light’s brightness as you wish. You can remove the light switch and set the dimmer there or you can connect the dimmer through an intermediate plug. Either way, it works perfectly.

Conclusion

We are done for today, thank you so much for being with us the whole time, hope I didn’t make you bored. Anyway, now you know A to Z of how to make LED lights look warmer. If there are still any questions left answers, ask in the comments box, and we will be happy to answer.