Time to research light bulbs...

[mithriltabby]

I’ve been talking about doing this research for a while, and now I need to replace some bulbs around Maine Coon Manor, so it’s time to do the research on compact fluorescent bulbs. (The timing of this is largely to do with having had a bulb burn out in the parlor last night, not with the current bizarre legislation proposed to ban incandescent light bulbs and make life difficult for people who need accurate color rendering in their day jobs.) I want to save power, but not at the expense of making the house lighting look harsh. The factors here are brightness, color temperature (which is how “warm” a light looks), and color rendering index (CRI) (which is how true the spectrum produced is to that of natural sunlight). Brightness and color temperature are commonly shown on the packaging, but CRI can be hard to track down.

I’m looking forward to LED light bulbs and eventually quantum dot bulbs, but I hear the CRI of LED bulbs is more in the 60–70 range right now and that they function best as spotlights, rather than ambient illumination. The Incandescent vs. CFL vs. LED Light Bulb Challenge (and related Digg page) has a spreadsheet for comparison.

EnergyStar says that our familiar incandescents generate 870–890 lumens at 60W, 1,190–1,200 lumens at 75W, and 1,680–1,750 lumens at 100W.

There’s a bunch of good data at Ask the Builder. Light Bulbs Alter True Colors says incandescent bulbs have a color temperature around 2750 K, and Light Bulb Color Temperature says that 3000 K will bring out reds, browns, and oranges, 4100 will bring out greens and blues, and 3500 K is a good intermediate. Another site has an article on What CF lamps to use where.

It looks like every bulb sold locally has a CRI of 82, if I can find it at all. TCPI sells theirs under the brands “Commercial Electric” at Home Depot and “DuraBright” at Orchard Supply. Home Depot also stocks Lights of America Fluorex bulbs. OSH also has Satco bulbs and Sylvania Dulux. Lowe’s also stocks the Sylvania. Safeway stocks General Electric CFLs.

The ones I couldn’t find CRIs for were the house brands: Home Depot’s n:vision and Lowe’s Bright Effects. I also can’t find any aggregations of recommendations; Don Klipstein’s page has a bunch of information on CFLs, and his bug report section found flaws in the Lights of America, n:vision, and older GE models. He links to another page of reviews that suggests the Commercial Electric ones are good. The Federal Energy Management Program has some shopping guidelines, and links to the Lighting Research Center, which has extensive details that are far too much for my tired brain to keep track of right now.

Comments

[tronpublic.livejournal.com]

Some observations based on my CFL experiences:

* I have found the color of the light from all of the CFLs that I have purchased to be ok. On the other hand, most of the circline fluorescent bulbs that I have experienced had incredibly "cold" light. Have you seen Joe vs the Volcano?

* CFLs are physically larger than standard incandescent bulbs. They don't always fit in to existing fixtures.

* Dimmers cause CFLs to flicker - even when the dimmer is turned all the way up.

* Some CFLs take a second or so to turn on. This can take some getting used to.

* CFLs need a few minutes to warm up before they reach their maximum brightness. As the unit ages, it sometimes takes longer to become bright.

* CFLs can cause buzzing and other interference in wired and wireless audio systems. This can usually be overcome by moving the CFL away from the audio equipment.

[trystbat.livejournal.com]

I replaced most of my house bulbs w/fairly generic CFLs from OSH last year, & I haven't noticed much color issue at all. I use them in the bathroom for putting on makeup & in my sewing room for sewing & crafting, both places where color is important. I haven't had any problems.

The only slight inconvenience is the warm-up time. That's more noticable w/the bathroom bulbs bec. those are a larger round style that takes almost twice as long to come to full light as the smaller coil blub. But that was what fit the fixtures. At some point, I'll change out the fixture bec. I hate that style anyway.

The best part is that the CFLs are a lot cooler. This was very noticable in the sewing room last summer, as that can be one of the hottest rooms in the house, & I have a lot of light fixtures in there. But w/the new bulbs, it was cooler than it used to be.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

According to Eric's family, fluorescent light bulbs make dandy Christmas gifts. :P

Go green ! CFL's are smart for all of us

[freewill32.livejournal.com]

I have researched plenty on compact fluorescents and studied the manufacturers. My findings:

1. Most retail stores only carry general service CFL's and standard color temperatures.
2. Not consistent in technology to use on dimmers. Effective dimmable CFL's are dependent on each individual electrical system, no matter what a manufacturer claims.
3. Extremely energy efficient light bulbs. High CRI Full Spectrum CFL's are optimum.
4. Specialty niche companies offer the best CFL's - size, color, long life, lumens per watt, etc. The best I have found are from Bulborama.com