A panel light is good at ambient lighting and can illuminate a room with even, shadowless light.
Downlights are easily used as spotlights to create a focal point. Wall-mounted panel lights are ideal for reading light. A downlight can be positioned very close to a surface and create little to no shadow compared panel light. A well-designed LED downlight can also help to distribute light evenly and when you look at them, the LED strips appear to be of smooth and brighter quality.
LED panel lights are commonly used as general commercial or office mood lighting, or as task lighting to illuminate a single spot where you need it. Due to its soft light, an LED panel lighting is often used as ceiling adornments too. They're available in various brightness, colour temperature and wattage options.
Some people like the even effect of LED panel lighting since it gives them the most perceptible definition of shapes and forms while at the same time giving their eyes enough exposure for activities that require more precision such as reading or working on crafts, or painting a picture.Alternatively, some may want task lighting in order to do fine work for example repairing something or sewing.
Another alternative is using accent lighting in the form of LED light panels to highlight architectural details such as around bedroom windows and doors or architectural objects such as paintings and sculptures.
It's preferable to have conventional downlights spaced evenly because it minimises shadows, reduces glare, and helps give a room a warmer look. A spacing difference of 30cm between each light bulbs or LED light works well for 60-degree beam installation angles but if you use a panel light with narrower mounted beams (between 20-40 degrees), the spaces between lights should be closer together. This is because as beam angle narrows, the perception becomes more acute and there will be less space for visual cues that can help reduce glare when you move your head about.
Downlights are also easier to aim towards the spot you want to illuminate compared to a panel light that has larger light spread patterns.
Luminescence is a measure of how much energy something releases when it is heated up or undergoes a chemical reaction such as combustion. Illumination is different from luminescence which refers to how bright something looks. Luminescence is the quality of light intensity and how much area the light covers (the larger the area, the dimmer it will appear).
Lumens are a unit of light that is used to describe LED light output. Lumens are one measure of how bright a given light source is. It's not really that relevant in terms of choosing lights though because luminous flux, which determines how much energy a given light or power source releases as heat when it burns, needs to be taken into account as well. The amount of lumens you can get from a specific lighting technology depends on several factors including how many bulbs there are in the installation (in case of a wall-mounted lamp or spotlights), power voltage, efficiency and colour rendering index (CRI).