LED Light Bar: All About Colour Temperature

When shopping for LED light bar, one of the most important factors you must consider apart from lumens and input voltage is colour temperature. Colour temperature provides a way for car owners to describe the appearance of the light generated by a source, or in this case a light bar. It is measured in degrees of Kelvin (K) on a scale of 1,000 to 10,000. 

An LED light bulb's colour temperature helps you determine what the look and feel of the generated light will be. It is assigned through the correlated colour temperature or CCT. For example, if you heat up a metal object, it will appear to glow. Depending on the Kelvin temperature it is being heated at, this glow will be in different colours like orange, yellow, or blue. The colour temperature of light generated by a light source is designed to replicate the Kelvin temperature of the metal object being heated, hence, the reason why the colour of the light produced by your light bar is expressed in Kelvin.

Typical Colour Temperatures of an LED Light Bar

Here are the colour temperatures of the light typically generated by an LED light bar in Australia and other types of automotive lighting.

1. 3000K

LED light with colour temperature of 3000K is usually yellow in colour. This colour of lighting is common among fog lights. It helps increase the visibility of a vehicle when viewed by other drivers and provides the light a distinct colour difference.

2. 4300K

This colour temperature is the colour of the light generated by most HID driving lights. It's whiter than 3000K but it still has a slight yellow tint.

3.  5000K

If you're going to refer to the Planckian locus graph, you'll see that light with colour temperature of 5000K is the whitest of all colours available. Car owners who choose this colour temperature are often those who want to achieve a modern look with their 4WD LED bar light without looking too aftermarket.

4. 6000K

Larger LED light bars often have at least 6000K colour temperature. The light with this colour temperature is primarily white with a very slight tint of blue or purple.

How to Know Which Colour Temperature is for You

The best colour temperature will ultimately depend on your preferences and what you're trying to achieve. To help you remember which colour is which, the lower the colour temperature is, the more yellow or orange the light would appear. The higher the temperature, the more blue or purple it would be.  Also, remember that just because a light bar has a higher colour temperature, it doesn't mean that it is brighter than any other lighting devices.

Make sure to do your research well and determine your preferences so you can buy light bars 4x4 that meet your requirements.