Introduction to Tunable White Lights

Tunable white lights are fundamentally changing residential lighting design. Premium systems now offer color temperature adjustment on demand; in the same way dimmers offer brightness control on demand. This has created a paradigm shift in the way that we design and control residential lighting systems.

What is tunable white light?

Tunable white is a feature that allows color temperature adjustment independent of brightness. It also implies that this adjustment can be made on the fly, as opposed to a dip switch at the back of the fixture.

Why are tunable whites desirable?

Most evening settings, such as a family dinner or game night with friends, would feel cold and sterile if using the same light as a medical office. That’s because medical office lights are very white and harsh. In contrast, a soft white light with hues of orange would make this setting feel very cozy and relaxed.

The picture below illustrates the same title image, but in a much warmer light.

You can see that it has a very different mood.

This phenomenon can be explained by our natural circadian rhythm, where we associate warm fiery tones with sunset, and therefore associate those same tones with evening and relaxation.

Similarly, you may struggle to wake up for your morning exercise routine if the lighting is soft and relaxing. It would be better if that light mimicked noontime daylight, signaling to your body it’s time to be active.

How to control tunable white light?

The ideal situation is that this is automatic, and the light inside the house will be programmed to follow a timeclock to closely reproduce the spectrum of the light outside. It will follow the cycle of the sun. It will be warm, yellow, orange, and red in the morning and through the evening, and full spectrum daylight during the day. This is possible with Lutron HomeWorks, or with special automation system integrations.

The next best scenario, which still applies even to the ideal case scenario, is that the scene selections at the wall keypads incorporate appropriate color temperature settings. For a long time, we’ve been installing kitchen keypads with 4 buttons that say “Cook, Dine, Clean, All Off” and each one of those scenes has appropriate levels of brightness for each switch leg, considering the given task. Tunable white lighting now offers the ability to change the color temperature in each one of these scenes, such that you can dine in soft white light, but clean in full spectrum daylight. This applies to all rooms of the home, and all the scenes that support them.

The third scenario, which is available in any situation, is manual control. This would be control from a phone app or an in-wall touch panel that’s part of the home automation system. The best case for this is when you have a party, where you decide that you need the room to be brighter, but you want to keep the light nice and soft. This gives the impression of low light relaxing calmness, while still providing adequate brightness for people to interact and socialize comfortably.