Compact Fluorescent Lamps [RE-wrenches]

[Rob Harlan]

Joel and Doug,
Environmental Defense has a good on-line bulb guide:
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagID=632&campaign=mts
You can enter the parameters such as: cool white, warm white, daylight,
dimmable, Cantelabra, etc an they will tell you which brands of compact
fluorescent bulbs meet your criteria.

Also compact fluorescent lamps with an Energy Star rating are required to
have Color Rendering Indexes above 80. They also have to put their light
color rating (2700K "warm white" to 6500K "daylight") on the bulb (many
manufacturers do not list the rating).  Also Energy Star rated bulbs have to
meet standards for sustaining lumen output over time.

Rob Harlan
Executive Director
Solar Energy Society of Canada
Northern Alberta Chapter
(780) 439-5608





On 7/16/07 10:50 PM, "Doug Pratt" <dmpratt at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> 
> Joel,
> 
> There are really only two scientific rating systems for light color and
> quality. 
> 
> Degrees Kelvin describes the light color. Lower numbers, 2700 to 3000 are
> rosy-yellow and mimic the standard 60-watt incandescent bulb most of us grew
> up with. 5000 to 6000 is bluish, more like direct sunlight. These bluish
> bulbs make good reading lights, but they make people look like the night of
> the living dead (IMHO).
> 
> The Color Rendering Index (CRI) is a measure of how closely the light mimics
> actual noon sunlight by rendering colors accurately. On the CRI scale 100 is
> noon sunlight, 0 is a cave. Lights with a CRI of 80 or better are pretty
> nice all around. 90 or better is really great, but hard to find in a
> fluorescent. Your typical 4-foot cool white tube has a CRI of 62. "Warm
> white" fluorescents rate about 52, which is why you found your cheap cfl so
> unpleasant. Many fluorescent manufacturers don't list the CRI for their
> lamps, which leads me to think they're probably well under 80. (They suck in
> other words.)
> 
> The major manufacturers DO list all this info in their lamp catalogs.
> 
> Cheers,
> Doug Pratt
> DC Power Systems
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joel Davidson [mailto:joel.davidson at sbcglobal.net]
> Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 10:58 AM
> To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> Subject: Compact Fluorescent Lamps [RE-wrenches]
> 
> 
> Wrenches,
> 
> CFL color names and standards are inconsistent. n:vision brand 14-watt soft
> white CFLs (60W equivalent) emit light that gives a greenish tint to some
> white people's skin and to yellow fabrics and the n:vision 19-watt (75W
> equivalent) daylight CFL light is too harsh indoors and seems to flicker.
> What brand or model CFL emits a nice, warm (2300-2700 kelvin), yellow light?
> 
> Thanks in advance for your insights.
> 
> Joel Davidson 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 


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