Room Lighting

[riogrande5761]

I had used 5k LED's on my last layout and found them to be too white.  I switched to 4k LED's and like them better.

[rrebell]

The real anoying thing about fluoresent fading is that it comes on so gradual, at first you don't notice, then you  notice big time.

[doctorwayne]

rrebell

Floresents are bad as the fade things, sometimes very fast, greens seem to go first. All my lights are LED bulbs but I forgot to change out one light in the bathroom, only noticed because a palm tree pic lost its green on a wall picture.

 

The fading can be prevented if a translucent plastic cover is added beneath the fluorescent fixture, as shown in my earlier photos.  The ones over my lower-level staging yard have such covers as clip-ons, but the ones over the partial lower level of the layout are not so-covered, and have created some fading.  Those are the ones that I'll be replacing with ordinarly LED bulbs, which have a wider angle of light spread than do the thin LED fixtures in the drop ceiling.

 

Wayne

[rrebell]

Floresents are bad as the fade things, sometimes very fast, greens seem to go first. All my lights are LED bulbs but I forgot to change out one light in the bathroom, only noticed because a palm tree pic lost its green on a wall picture.

[rrebell]

3000 looks best to me, harder to get now in bulbs as mine is a track lighting system with regular LED bulbs. Have a few 5000 intermingled to bring it up a bit more, the slight variety adds to the realism as in the real world with clouds and haze.

[doctorwayne]

Pruitt

Your eyes will automatically adjust to the color of the light, so pretty much any setting will look fine.

I agree with Mark.

I opted for fluorescent lighting, and chose "cool white" due to its higher lumen output.  It took only a few minutes for my eyes to accept that it looked like daylight.

I originally had fourteen  4' double-tube fluorescent fixtures, plus two 8' doubles, but when I added a partial second level to the layout, I added another ten 4' doubles for the lower level, plus two cool white LEDs to brighten a couple of corners.

The level below is currently lit by fluorescents, too, but they're not equipped with plastic covers, which shows some fading of the backdrop and scenery.  My plan is to remove the fluorescents there, then replace them with unshielded full-size LED bulbs.  
I'll do a few tests to determine the required spacing, but the LEDs will definitely cut down on hydro costs.

Here are a few photos of the train room, an oddly-shaped 560sq. ft., with 10 corners.  (The pictures will enlarge if clicked upon)

Here's a sketch of the layout room (no track plan) - I just built it the way I thought it would work and look well, too...

The area in grey is the lower level, with the partial second level above it.

Here's part of the two-level portion...

...and some of the single level, with fluorescents...

Here are some of the thin LED fixtures, along with some of the remaining fluorescents...they'll eventually be replaced with the thin LEDs.

...and these fluorescents will also be replaced with the thin LEDs...

The thin LEDs have a beam-spread of about 120º  which allows them to be about 42" apart over the layout where it's a single level.  On the partial upper level, which is only 22" below the room's drop ceiling, the LEDs would have to be much closer together in order to provide sufficient illumination.

I have seen the LED panels, too, but was not impressed with the light output, nor the cost.

While the LEDs are dimmable, that feature is of no interest to me, as I don't do "nighttime" operations and the locos don't have lighting either, as it was not required for daytime running in my layout's late '30s era.

Wayne

[gmpullman]

mthobbies

Anybody have photo examples of their layouts? What color temperatures do you guys like best?

I like 2700K dimmable:

IMG_8627_fix by Edmund, on Flickr

IMG_8621 by Edmund, on Flickr

IMG_1487 by Edmund, on Flickr

IMG_1475 by Edmund, on Flickr

These are some of the first LEDs I bought to replace the GE 50W PAR lamps. For general lighting and "work sessions" I've also installed troffer LED flat panel 5000K.

IMG_8609 by Edmund, on Flickr

I normally do not illuminate these when running trains, I prefer the "targeted" mini floods in cans and track lighting fixtures.

Good Luck, Ed

[mthobbies]

Anybody have photo examples of their layouts? What color temperatures do you guys like best?

 

- Matt

[SeeYou190]

This:

Pruitt

Your eyes will automatically adjust to the color of the light, so pretty much any setting will look fine. Photography is a different story. <SNIP> Personally, I use 5000k LED panels in my layout room. Looks good to me both through my eyes and to my cameras.

If you are going to take pictures of the layout, you will want a minimum of 5,000K light.

If you don't, choose whatever color looks best to your eyes.

-Kevin

[cowman]

Thank you for your responses.  Son set them on daylight and showed me how to change them if I want to after there  is scenery in place.

Have gotten a couple of 403's, will try again.

Thanks again,

Richard

[7j43k]

cowman

For Christmas I was given two 2'x2' LED lighting panels for my new 7'x14' trainroom.

They have color optiions:  Neutral, Cool and Daylight.  Which settting would be best for the room?  There is only one 2'x4' exterrior window which will be partially blocked by the backdrop, otherwise they are the only light source.

Thank you for the suggestions,

Richard

 

As noted by another poster, your eye/brain will adapt to a wide range of light temperatures (K), and call them white.

 

(More than you asked for follows)

 

For LED's, light color is frequently given as degrees Kelvin (K).  Your colors are given in "words".  I will guess that your colors in Kelvin are 3000K, 4000K and 5000K, in order.

The lower the number, the warmer the light.  Classic lightbulbs are pretty close to 3000K.  "Daylight" is actually a pretty cool color--"blue".

You can learn more with an internet search using something like "LED Kelvin".

 

A problem can arise when you have multiple light sources of different K ratings.  Right now, I'm in a room with general fluorescent light color of 5500 K.  There are also track lights with halogen bulbs.  They run about 3000 K.  When BOTH are lit up, there will always be a noticeable difference in the light color.  When only one system is lit, you don't see it.

Light coming in through a window during daytime is pretty close to 5000 K.  So if you're lighting up the other end of a long room, you might want to have 5000 K at that end.  If you already have lighting in the room, you probably want to match it in color.  

Other than that, it doesn't matter much, except that you probably will get a bit more light out of the higher K.  

Ed

[York1]

cowman

They have color optiions:  Neutral, Cool and Daylight. 

I imagine cool tends to be blue, and daylight would be bright white.  What is neutral?  Does it tend to the more yellowish side?

I think it's all personal preference, but the bright and blues make me very uncomfortable.  Yellowish light seems to be my favorite.  Not sure how that works for photography.

One of the issues for LEDs is the different temperatures and what they mean.  I bought some a while back that said "daylight" and they were much to white-blue for me.

I know that Menards and Home Depot have light displays with the different temperatures displayed.  That helped me a lot.

[Pruitt]

Your eyes will automatically adjust to the color of the light, so pretty much any setting will look fine.

Photography is a different story. Most cameras will auto white balance, but not all, and sometimes not very well. So if you want to take a lot of prototypical-looking photos, the higher temperature lights might work best (though I'll certainly defer on the opinion of more knowledgeable photographers on that).

Personally, I use 5000k LED panels in my layout room. Looks good to me both through my eyes and to my cameras.

[josephbw]

I have 8x8 square ceiling LED lights. I use daylight lamps to resemble sunlight. The colors look natural that way.

Joe

[cowman]

For Christmas I was given two 2'x2' LED lighting panels for my new 7'x14' trainroom.

They have color optiions:  Neutral, Cool and Daylight.  Which settting would be best for the room?  There is only one 2'x4' exterrior window which will be partially blocked by the backdrop, otherwise they are the only light source.

Thank you for the suggestions,

Richard