Fluorescent Lighting--Cool White vs Daylight Deluxe Style Tubes

judaspre1982 · Post by **judaspre1982** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 2:22 pm

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dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 2:31 pm

Darn - didn't need to hear that. I just bought all new tubes because I thought my old lighting had gotten dingy. Now realize, my old lights were really old, like several years (maybe close to a decade). I bought cool white. Oh well.

reible · Post by **reible** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 2:48 pm

Hi,

I have been in the process of upgrading my shop lighting this year, some of you may remember this post:
http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthread.htm?t=2961

I was going to do an update to that post and mention that I liked the lights so much better that I went ahead and juggled the money around and got the rest of them this year. What a really big difference it makes!

Yesterday the wife was commenting on how bright and nice it was now with all the old bulbs and fixtures replaced. Really makes me wish I had done this some years ago. I think she thinks it was a good idea despite the initial cost.

I've just come in from packing the last of the fixtures and about a dozen working bulbs to take to my son who just got a new house and can at least for now use them in the garage and basement. Got three bulbs to take to the recycle center and that will be it for the old style bulbs.

Ed

mickyd · Post by **mickyd** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 3:20 pm

judaspre1982 wrote:I just wanted to give my reccomendation for the Daylight Deluxe style of fluorescent tubes over the Cool White. I was at HD to buy 4ft shop lights and tubes. .........

Did you go with T8 or T12's?

judaspre1982 · Post by **judaspre1982** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 3:33 pm

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rkh2 · Post by **rkh2** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 3:52 pm

Just to add my 2 cents worth as I work at Home Depot in the Electrical Dept and agree that the Daylight Deluxe are the way to go. They simulate daylight and definitely are brighter and easier on the eyes. The T8 are the electronic ballast and are not effected by the cold. I have one old T12 fixture in my shop which is about to get replaced as it gets annoying with the flickering in cold temps. Unfortunately all my other tubes are soft white as I bought a case of them at a real good clearance price before they came out with the daylight deluxe and have a hard time trying to replace them when they still work ok. It will be daylight deluxe down the road when the time comes unless I can convince myself sooner to "bite the bullet" and replace them earlier before they go bad.

horologist · Post by **horologist** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 5:08 pm

I just replaced the fixture in my laundry room / shop with an 8 foot fixture that uses four 4' T8 bulbs.

The term daylight bulb doesn't mean too much and some of these bulbs bear little resemblance to daylight, at least on this planet. The bulbs I bought were:
[ATTACH]6558[/ATTACH]

The most important numbers to consider are the color temperature and the color rendering index (CRI). Sunlight has a color temperature of about 5000 to 6000 K. The CRI index gives a measure of the effect on the appearance of colors when comparing a light source to a reference source of the same color temperature. A CRI of 100 is perfect.

You have to consider both values, for example a High CRI value combined with a color temperature that is significantly different than the sunlight value of 5000 to 6000K can not really be considered a good "daylight" bulb.
Similarly, a low CRI index on a bulb in the correct temperature range may be disappointing as well.

On the whole I hate fluorescent lights but these bulbs are a huge improvement over the 8' T12 cool white bulbs I had before.

The new electronic ballasts reduce the flicker to about zero. My only gripe is that the light fixture creates so much interference that the radio is pretty much useless.

Troy

judaspre1982 · Post by **judaspre1982** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 6:28 pm

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mickyd · Post by **mickyd** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 7:16 pm

judaspre1982 wrote:This is what I bought http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xgy/R-100476640/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053. Not listed in the the specs are---Light Output=2800 lumens----Color Rendering=85. I just came in from the shop. I worked in the new lighting section until dark and love the Daylight bulbs. I will be changing the Cool White tubes out in the other section of the shop tomorrow.----Dave

Dave - Research the color temperature a little before you buy your next bulbs tomorrow. If wikipedia is accurate (see the table in the Spectrum of Light section halfway down the page), the HD bulb specs you showed have a color temp of 6500 F (3866 Kelvin) which appears low compare to the table. The GE bulb Troy shows in his post is a 5000 K which is wht is considered the min value for daylight.

Don't go by my post here since I don't know for sure but just research it a bit. What it all comes down to though is if you like what you already have, that's all that matters.

judaspre1982 · Post by **judaspre1982** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 8:55 pm

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