See your room under soft white, bright white and daylight bulbs side by side, each named the way GE, Feit Electric and Sylvania name it. Upload a photo or try a sample room; your photo never leaves your device.
Tap a bulb to choose it
A simulation: the photo is tinted by each bulb's own color, so take it by daylight or with the room's lights off for the truest result.
1Your room
2Bulbs to compare (up to 4)
3How it looks
Your eyes adjust to a bulb's color, and never quite all the way: the CIE's color appearance model puts it near 85% in a lit room. "Full color" is the whole tint, the way a camera set to daylight records it.
Your bulb
2700 K: Soft White at GE and Feit Electric; Warm White at Sylvania (LEDVANCE)ENERGY STAR: soft white or warm white (2200–3000 K), "Ideal for most indoor applications." · on the box: Light Appearance 2700 K, at the warm end of the FTC label’s 2,600–6,600 K scale
Quick answer: soft white is 2700 K, a warm golden light (GE and Feit Electric both name it), and daylight is 5000 K, a crisp blue-white. ENERGY STAR sorts bulbs into three bands: soft or warm white, 2200–3000 K, “ideal for most indoor applications”; neutral or cool white, 3500–4100 K, for kitchens and work spaces; daylight, 5000–6500 K, for reading. The names between them don’t agree: bright white is 3000 K at Feit Electric and 3500 K at GE. Buy by the number on the box.
How to use the light bulb color visualizer
- Add your room: upload a photo or take one with your phone, or pick a sample room. Take it by daylight, or with the room’s own lights off, so the photo starts out neutral.
- Pick up to four bulbs to see side by side, from 2200 K to 6500 K. The page starts with 2700, 3000, 4000 and 5000 K.
- Choose how it looks: “Full color” shows each bulb’s color as a camera records it; “Eyes adjusted” shows it the way you see it once you are in the room. Tap a picture to choose that bulb and see what each maker calls it.
Want to know how much light the room needs, or how many recessed lights to put in? The recessed lighting and lumens calculator works out the lumens and the spacing. This page shows what the color will look like in your room.
What each maker calls each color
The kelvin number is the only part the law fixes. The FTC’s Lighting Facts label prints it on every box as “Light Appearance”, with a marker on a scale from 2,600 K at the warm end to 6,600 K at the cool end (16 CFR 305.23). The names are each maker’s own choice:
| Kelvin | GE | Feit Electric | Sylvania (LEDVANCE) | ENERGY STAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2200 K | – | – | – | soft white or warm white |
| 2700 K | Soft White | Soft White | Warm White | soft white or warm white |
| 3000 K | Warm White | Bright White | Soft White (2700–3000 K) | soft white or warm white |
| 3500 K | Bright White | Neutral White | Bright White | neutral white or cool white |
| 4000 K | Cool White | Cool White | Bright White (3500–4100 K) | neutral white or cool white |
| 5000 K | Daylight | Daylight | Daylight | daylight |
| 6500 K | Cool Daylight | Daylight (5000–6500 K) | Daylight (5000–6500 K) | daylight |
A name with a range in brackets is that maker’s band, not a bulb it names at that number. Sources: GE’s relax and refresh pages and its plug-in LED page; Feit Electric’s color temperature guide (March 2026); LEDVANCE’s “Soft White vs. Bright White vs. Daylight”; ENERGY STAR’s lighting flyer. ENERGY STAR never uses “bright white”, and leaves 3000–3500 K and 4100–5000 K between its bands.
Which color for which room
| Kelvin | Feit Electric names it for |
|---|---|
| 2700 K | bedroom, living room, dining room |
| 3000 K | bathroom, hallway, accent lighting |
| 3500 K | kitchen, home office, laundry room |
| 4000 K | bathroom vanity, kitchen workspace |
| 5000 K | garage, basement, security lighting |
GE puts its soft white and warm white bulbs in “bedrooms, family rooms, and dining rooms”, and its daylight bulbs in “playrooms, home offices, laundry rooms, and even garages”. ENERGY STAR calls the warm band “ideal for most indoor applications”, neutral and cool white “good for kitchens and work spaces” and daylight “good for reading”.
How the pictures are made
The FTC defines a bulb’s color temperature as “the absolute temperature of a blackbody whose chromaticity most nearly resembles that of the light source”. The visualizer takes that blackbody’s color at each temperature and tints your photo with it, measured against 6500 K daylight, the white your screen is set to. A 6500 K bulb leaves the photo as it is; each picture keeps your photo’s brightness, because a bulb’s color says nothing about how bright it is (that is lumens).
Your eyes adjust to the light in a room, and never quite all the way. The CIE’s color appearance model, CIECAM02, puts the adjustment near 85% in a lit room; “Eyes adjusted” uses that, “Halfway” is in between, and “Full color” shows the whole tint, the way a camera set to daylight records it. It is a simulation: your photo was lit by its own light, and a real bulb’s color varies a little from one maker to another.
Worked examples
2700 K: Soft White at GE and Feit Electric; Warm White at Sylvania (LEDVANCE). A living room or bedroom: the warm band, the one Feit names for bedrooms, living rooms and dining rooms. Next to it, the 3000 K picture is a little whiter.
3000 K: Warm White at GE; Bright White at Feit Electric; Soft White at Sylvania (LEDVANCE). A bathroom or a hallway, Feit Electric’s picks for it. Three makers, three names for one number: this is the bulb to buy by its kelvin.
4000 K: Cool White at GE and Feit Electric; Bright White at Sylvania (LEDVANCE). A kitchen workspace or a bathroom vanity, inside ENERGY STAR’s neutral and cool white band.
5000 K: Daylight at GE, Feit Electric and Sylvania (LEDVANCE). A garage, a basement or a reading corner. Every maker agrees on this one, and it is the whitest of the four pictures.
Common mistakes
- Buying by the name. A box that says “bright white” can hold a 3000 K bulb (Feit Electric) or a 3500 K one (GE). Check the number on the Lighting Facts label.
- Mixing colors in one room. Feit Electric: “Mixing very warm (2700K) and very cool (5000K) bulbs in one space can look unbalanced.” Keep a room’s bulbs close in color.
- Expecting a cooler bulb to be brighter. “Color temperature does not affect brightness — that’s measured in lumens” (Feit Electric). A 2700 K and a 5000 K bulb can both give 800 lumens.
- Judging a photo taken under the old bulbs. A photo already lit by warm lamps starts out warm, so every picture runs warm. Take it by daylight.
More on lighting at Dreamy Home Style
- Warm lighting ideas that make a room glow after dark
- Mood lighting for the living room
- Wall sconce ideas
- Bathroom vanity lighting over the mirror
- Paint palettes that look good in any light
Planning the whole room? Draw it to scale in the free 2D floor planner.
Light bulb color questions
Daylight vs soft white: what is the difference?
Soft white is 2700 K, a warm golden light; daylight is 5000 K, a crisp blue-white (GE, Feit Electric and Sylvania agree on both). ENERGY STAR calls the warm band “ideal for most indoor applications” and daylight “good for reading”.
Soft white vs warm white: which is warmer?
It depends on the maker. At GE, soft white is 2700 K and warm white 3000 K, “slightly more neutral”. In LEDVANCE’s own chart, 2700 K is warm white. ENERGY STAR treats them as one band, 2200–3000 K.
2700K vs 3000K: which should I choose?
Both are in ENERGY STAR’s warm band. 2700 K is the warmer of the two, the one Feit Electric names for bedrooms, living rooms and dining rooms; 3000 K is a little whiter, its pick for bathrooms and hallways.
Bright white vs daylight?
Bright white is 3000 K at Feit Electric and 3500 K at GE; daylight is 5000 K at both. Bright white is still in or near the warm half of the FTC’s scale; daylight is in its cool half.
Cool white vs daylight?
Cool white is 4000 K at GE and Feit Electric, in ENERGY STAR’s neutral and cool white band “good for kitchens and work spaces”; daylight is 5000 K and up, “good for reading”.
4000K vs 5000K?
4000 K is cool white, for a kitchen workspace or a bathroom vanity (Feit Electric); 5000 K is daylight, for a garage, a basement or reading.
5000K vs 6500K?
Both are daylight to ENERGY STAR. GE: “Compared to our Daylight temperature (5000K), our Cool Daylight (6500K) provides a slightly more arctic color”.
Where do I find a bulb’s color temperature?
On the Lighting Facts label on the box, as “Light Appearance”: the kelvin number and a marker on a scale from warm (2,600 K) to cool (6,600 K).