Maybe you’re just used to using LED pool lights and don’t know much about them. I’m going to give you some interesting facts about LED pool lights and lighting so that you can gain more knowledge while you enjoy reading. Let’s get started.
Most LED pool lights are made of plastic or stainless steel. So, the most common colors for them are white and silver white.
Most LED pool lights have a dye added to the plastic housing when it is made. White plastic housings are the most common, but some products offer other options depending on the user’s requirements. For example, some pool lights can be supplied with a white or blue face ring as an option.
Some plastic pool lights are manufactured with a frosted finish for a unique texture. Bodies with a frosted finish have a degree of light transmission that provides a unique lighting experience when the pool light is illuminated.
Stainless steel is also a common housing material for LED pool lights. The body of a stainless steel pool light is made up of several elements, the most important of which are iron, chromium and nickel. These are all silvery white metals that give stainless steel its final silvery white colour. If you look closely, you will notice that some stainless steel pool lights have a textured stainless steel surface and others have a smooth surface. This is because they are manufactured using a brushed or polished process.
Brushing is a surface treatment that uses mechanical friction to create a regular and even texture on the surface of stainless steel. Common brushed patterns include thin stripes and circles.
Polishing is a finish that leaves the surface of the workpiece completely flat. Polished stainless steel pool lights look very smooth and reflective, like a mirror.
Pool lights can be distinguished by the colour of their body material.
Brass pool lights are golden yellow or other yellow colours and have a distinctive metallic feel.
Some aluminium pool lights are a matt silver grey, others are grey or black, depending on the finish.
Elements such as complex and nickel added to stainless steel can react chemically with oxygen to form a dense oxide layer on the surface, protecting it from corrosion on the inside. This is the principle of rust prevention in stainless steel.
Common stainless steel materials used in pool lighting are SS304 and SS316. SS316 adds 2-3% molybdenum to SS304, which increases the stainless steel’s resistance to chloride corrosion. SS316 is therefore more suitable than SS304 for use in corrosive environments such as seawater, salt water and some chemicals. Molybdenum is expensive and this is the reason why SS316 pool lights sell for much more than SS304 pool lights.
During use, some stainless steel pool lights can still develop rust problems, often due to the following reasons.
The manufacturer’s manufacturing capabilities are inadequate or they cut corners, resulting in inferior quality stainless steel materials. Quality issues can cause stainless steel pool lights to rust despite being used in a regulated environment.
Some pools have poor water quality or have added too much disinfectant, resulting in too many oxidising or reducing ions in the water. These ions destroy the protective layer of the stainless steel surface and the luminaire body gradually corrodes during use.
Seawater contains high levels of salt and SS304 pool lights are less resistant to salt. In seawater or other applications with a high salt content, SS316 pool lights should be chosen.
This may surprise you, but it is true. In fact, visible light, invisible ultraviolet light and infrared light are all absorbed by water.
Different types of light have different wavelengths. Below is a diagram of the spectrum of sunlight, which includes visible light in different colours, as well as invisible ultraviolet and infrared light.
There is no white light on this diagram because it is a mixture of other lights.
The longer the wavelength of light, the greater the ability of water to absorb it. As can be seen from the spectrogram above, water has the greatest ability to absorb infrared light and the least ability to absorb ultraviolet light.
From the above information we can conclude that:
Of all visible light, red light and yellow light penetrate water less, blue light and violet light penetrate water more.
In addition, blue light tends to relax the body and mind and is close to the colour of the sea. White light, on the other hand, has a clearer lighting effect. Blue and white light are therefore the most common choices for outdoor pool lighting.
The answer is that the distance is too short. LED pool lights emit white light that penetrates the water and then shines into our eyes. Because the water in the pool is not deep enough, the difference in the water’s ability to absorb different types of light is not yet apparent. Therefore, we are not yet able to see the changes caused by the colour of the light with our eyes.
The blue colour of some deeper waters, such as the sea, is a result of the sun’s light penetrating the water and absorbing a large amount of red and green light, causing the water to appear blue.
If your pool appears green or yellow, in addition to the lighting factor, it is likely that there is a large amount of algae growing in the water. These algae contain chlorophyll, a substance that absorbs red and blue light and reflects green light, giving the algae a green colour. When the algae die and decompose, they release yellow pigments, giving the water a yellow colour.
There are also some algae that give the water other colours, such as red or brown. These algae contain different pigments and can absorb and reflect different colours of light.
