SOURCE - Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

The Color of Light

I've found that Home Depot sells the CFLs that offer the best quality of lighting for my taste. Their N:vision brand comes in three varieties: Warm White, Bright White and Daylight. For me, the Warm White is too dim and yellow, and the Daylight is bluish white. The Bright White ones replaced my "reader" incandescent lights with a similar color of light and more even coverage. These are the spiral-shaped ones that I use in table lamps.

For recessed ceiling lights, N:vision also has a flood light in the same colors. Again, I replaced the floodlights in my kitchen with the Bright White floods, and the color and coverage are better than the Sylvania 65W floods that I used before.

I have the 120W equivalents in my living room lamps, replacing 240W GE Reader incandescents. In the kitchen, I used the 65W equivalent form of the N:vision floodlights replacing 65W incandescent floods.

The secret to knowing which CFL to choose is to learn about light color, which is expressed as a Kelvin temperature. Not all brands put this information on the label, but look for brands that do. Warm white light that has a yellowish cast is generally about 2700K. N:vision's Bright White CFLs are 3200K or 3500K if I remember correctly, which makes colors look more realistic than the yellowish lights. Daylight bulbs that are about 5000K simulate summer daylight, which is good for bright lighting but may be more than you want indoors at night. There are some bulbs sold as daylight that are 6500K. I actually have a couple of those in my basement laundry area, and they're good for finding stains or sorting dark blue socks from dark brown or black ones, but I wouldn't like the bluish light in a living area.

You may need to experiment a bit to find the color of light you prefer, but remember to return those rejects to the store and get your money back. I've done it several times at different stores, and they always take them back. Don't waste your money keeping something you won't use.

What does it say on your product?



:google::clap::dance: <--- Just kiddin.