Compact Fluorescent CFL Colors Explained - 6500K Daylight Full Spectrum

What is Kelvin Color Temperature?

Use this visual to understand how Kelvin (K) values are related to common names (e.g. Soft White) in reference to CFL light bulbs.

The following photo was taken by Planet Bulb of three identical desk lamps with the same wattage spiral CFL bulb only in three different colors (2700K, 4100K and 6500K). Notice that the true life colors match the diagram above.

	Northern Sky: 8000K A clear sky producing a blue color light outside of the range of currently available light bulbs.
	Overcast Sky: 6500K - 7500K Slightly blue light shines during an overcast sky. You may have see "Daylight" bulbs, which are included at the low end of this Kelvin temperature range.
	Sunlight at Noon: 4000K - 6500K The whitest natural light occurs when the sun is directly overhead. The closest light bulbs will be in the "Daylight" range on some packaging. You now know that this is the 4000-6500K range for fluorescent bulbs.
	Incandescent and Halogen Bulbs: 2500K - 3500K Commonly found in lamps and fixtures in your home and office. These bulbs produce light with a yellow tint. CFL bulbs can produce light in this light range (lower K rating).
	Candle Light: 2000K Candles burn a soft yellow light. One lumen is the amount of light produced by a single candle.

Lord Kelvin
1824 - 1907

The Kelvin scale and the kelvin are named after the British physicist and engineer William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin , who wrote of the need for an “absolute thermometric scale”.

The kelvin (symbol: K) is a unit increment of temperature and is one of the seven SI base units. The Kelvin scale is a thermodynamic (absolute) temperature scale where absolute zero, the theoretical absence of all thermal energy, is zero (0 K).