Best "Daylight" Lightbulbs

[morkus64]

Anone have any experience with these? Good brand or model to go with? Also how do the compact fluorescent compare to incandescent?

Have theymde any good (as in both the feel of the light and the spread) LED bulbs yet?

 

[Elstupido]

LED, totally suck major big time. unless you like blue.

If you want a range of compact color, check out Home Depot. They come in green, blue and red colors, depending on what temperature color you want. Green is closest to incandescent, and gets brighter from there....blue, red

Cf have made a huge improvement compared to incandescent. Third the wattage, ten times the life, and can match any color temperature you wish.

 

[darkxshade]

as the above poster has said, compact fluorescent has longer life and uses less power. If you want the feel of sunlight, get compact fluorescent bulbs with a light temperature of around 5-7000 kelvins.

 

[morkus64]

any specific brands / models (links?) I know these can vary alot from brand to brand

 

[BigJ]

Home Depot will have a display of the three color temperatures of CFL bulbs they have by n:Vision.

Green (Soft White) will be the most yellow and most similar to incandescent white. Red (Bright White) will be the closest to a pure white. Blue (Daylight) will have a slightly blue tint to it. As Elstupido has said, in terms of lumens, the Soft White has the least, Daylight is in the middle, and Bright White will be the brightest.

The Daylight CFL is slightly whiter than most true fluorescent Daylight bulbs, but I haven't had any experience comparing it to the incandescent bulbs Home Depot carries (GE Reveal and occasionally the Philips Natural Light).

 

[Jeff7]

I :heart: Neolites

Very compact package, low mercury content, good color rendering index for any color temperature, and they do actually turn on instantly - no split-second delay like with some other brands.

 

[morkus64]

Jeff what color temp do you prefer?

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: morkus64
Jeff what color temp do you prefer?

I actually like 6500K best, but lights with that color temp can be hard to find.
I use the 5000K Neolites.

That's really what it is though - personal preference. Some people simply prefer the yellowish color of 2700K, which I think is closest to that of incandescent lighting.


Some of the issues of preference that I've seen may come from a low color rendering index. Some people complain that things look ugly under cheap CFL lighting, and I think it may be because of the poor CRI - colors simply look lousy under poor quality lights. Regular "Shoplite" fluorescent tubes only have a CRI of 70, and some colors can look a bit dull or "off" under those lights. 82 still isn't perfect (100 being the highest), but it's definitely good, especially for reasonably-priced CFLs. You can get 96-98CRI fluorescents, but they're quite expensive.