OK, I don't have UCL yet, but my contractor put 5000 LED lights in the track lighting in the hall and it was beyond awful!! We changed them to 3000.

My ucls are 3,000K, nice warm, cozy light IMO, but certainly bright enough to work by. Out of curiosity I looked up 6000k lights on the internet. They seem to be recommended for commercial spaces, like supermarkets. There's where you might want to see the salmon jumping. In my kitchen I would prefer that the salmon lie quietly on the plate, thank you :).

Also, there's lots of info on the GW Lighting forum about led ucls.

We spent an afternoon last week at a large lighting store. There were several UC displays including an entire room setup as a kitchen. We got to spend time playing with the different kelvins that could be displayed in both the general lighting as well as the under cabinet lights. It was âÂÂenlighteningâ to see each temperature radically change the color of the entire kitchen. Cabinet colors can be made to look dreary, and I was surprised to see this with stainless steel as well.

We brought along a piece of our own multi-colored granite. I was very surprised to see that at 2700k it appeared to be simply yellow. The same granite placed under 5000k seemed to be totally grey. Placed under 3000k our granite looked as expected, clean and multi-colored. I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to see our own materials under all of these kelvins. For us, hands down: 3000 Kelvin.

We are also putting in LED recessed lighting, and thankfully Cree CR6 LEDs are now available in several kelvins, including 3000k, and they are also available in 800 lumen which we will be getting.

Our lighting guy recommends 2700k or 3000k depending on the warmth/coolness of your counter material. Testing a Carrera marble sample, we went with 3000k because the gray tones popped more.

Thanks for the feedback! I feel like I Google every combination of Gardenweb UCL and didn't come up with much.

Mine are all 3000k and I love it! In the side by side display at the big box stores, 2700k was noticeably yellow and I knew that I didn't want that. My older eyes seem to need the higher k as well.

I am glad that Cree is offering the whiter light now. Last year I had no choice except Sylvania (which work just fine, btw, now that I have the proper dimmer switch).

Our ucl are 3000k and the LEDs in the schoolhouse lights are 2700k

5000K is close to "daylight". 6000K is going to come across as quite blue.

2700-3000K is considered a "warm white" and is close to what we are used to in our homes with incandescent lighting.

One of the things that is interesting is that LEDs don't become significantly yellower when dimmed (if you are doing so) like what incandescent does.

Our lighting will be a mix of temperatures - all toward the "warm white" to slightly neutral end of things. We have the Ecosmart (Cree) 4" can lights installed - those are 2700K. Our UC lighting will be 3000K. And our pendants are at 3300K.

Our UC and pendants aren't installed yet, but I do expect that the pendant lights will read a bit "cooler" than the rest of our lights.

Personally, at night, I like lights a little on the warm side - it seems cozier. And I'm perfectly fine with my kitchen having a different look in the day as opposed to night.

Also, I will say that it was interesting going from having the 65 watt incandescents in the recessed lighting and then putting in the Ecosmart 4" (also rated as being "about the same as 65 watt"...the room is SO much brighter...extremely glad that we will have our dimmers. Over time, LEDs do fade a bit, so in my estimation, it's better to be too bright and turn them back than too dark and wishing for more light. Also, as we get older, we need more light to see, so that was another consideration as well when we are possibly "overlighting".

A 3200K person here.... didn't want the warmth of the yellow against the Carrera BS. I was surprised at the difference between 2700K and 3000K; quite a difference in yellow. Can't imagine 6000K!

(edited to correct my actual temp)

This post was edited by gooster on Tue, Feb 4, 14 at 15:40

The highest I would go is 3200K and that's pushing it. Sweet spot is 3000K.

I do have 5000K in our outdoor lights as it works very well at night. Indoors it's nothing short of hideous at most latitudes.

I put these in "LED wholesalers led strip at 3100k"
and I think the look great. I've also used Utilitech Pro 17-Watt 3000k for my overhead and they look natural as well.

You wouldn't believe how into the 6000K this guy was. Maybe he bought a bunch at a truckload sale..he he. Thanks very much for all your feedback! I have read it to my husband. I'm sure he rues the day he first heard the word "gardenweb." This guy's only advantage is that he is local and offers a warranty, which is nice. But I may end up ordering online.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Tue, Feb 4, 14 at 12:56

My ucl led tape has been one of the most frustrating parts of my remodel and is not yet resolved. I have 2 distinct colors of light, the warm looks yellow against my backsplash and the white is lovely. The product that I think is correct is the 833.73.401 Hafele loox high intensity 4000k but my contractor usually uses 833.73.400 and doesn't know how the whiter light even got shipped to him and said (in October) that it would be February before he could get more of it. At one point he installed some 833.73.410 which was quite blue. One of his employees recently called to say they'd be out to substitute a different, 6000k product which worried me and when I asked for more detail he didn't respond (or call back).
You may have found this thread, some people made some great contributions to my understanding of the subject but I still find it incredibly difficult!

Here is a link that might be useful: warm/cool led

I went with 3000K accidentally - I thought I wanted 2700 because it looked like incandescent but the cans I put in were 5 inch and I had trouble finding 2700 lights.
Turns out my DH says light should be white, not yellow and he was 100% right.
Love my 3000K lights - I did put in some decorative lights that are incandescent if I want to see yellowâ¦
I think anything more than 3000 (give or take a few 100) would be downright industrial.