Do these give off light that is a different shade, intensity or color of light than normal incandescent light bulbs do?
What about the low wattage varities of fluorescent? i’d be replacing 40 watt & 60 watt incandescents so i’d be using 11 watt & 15 watt fluorescent bulbs. Has anyone used these or noticed any annoying difference over incandescent (aka store brand 50 cent) varities?
Don’t want to waste $15
Their color or shade is very different because there are specific wavelengths that are very strongly emphasized, in addition to a more or less continuous spread of all the visible wavelengths. You can’t get all colors to look the same under fluorescents no matter what filters you put on a camera, for instance.
There are also many different shades of fluorescent tube available, for example at many different relative weightings of the bluish versus the reddish colors.
Qualifier: I work in a photo lab and often have to color correct for ambient light.
Flourescents give off a blue green light and incandescents give off a lot of yellow, more yellow than the blue/green.
Flourescents also can flicker, with a good fixture this won’t be a problem.
If you are vitally concerned about getting a natural light, you’ll have to pay for the more expensive full spectrum lights.
There’s very little in the way of a continuous spectrum in fluorescent lamps. I’ve looked at them through a spectroscope, and there are very definite discrete wavelengths being emitted. the distribution and intensty of these wavelengths can be adjusted to give cooler or warmer light.
Different lights have a different Kelvin rating, which translates to different levels or softer lights like yellow.
I’m not familar too much with these but I used to date an interior designer who would choose flourescents with different Kelvin ratings depending on the mood she was going for.
The term is not “Kelvin rating”, rather it is “color temperature”. See this Color Temperature Chart.
If you don’t really care about the quality of any photographs taken, I found that the subjective “quality” of the light from flourescents once they had warmed up was far better than that of incandescents. The main difference is that flourescents, in my experience, start off pink/orange, and warm up to a nice clean white over about a minute. After using compact flourescent lighting in my home for a few years, incandescent lighting in the rooms where I have yet to install flourescents looks too yellow and ugly to me.
The low wattage flourescets are great in my opinion. I have replaced my entire house with them and am in the process in putting them in all my rentals.
They have made a noticible difference in out lighting bill, there is no flicker, the color is pleasant enough and they are bright enough for everything including reading.
The only thing you have to get used to is that they take a second to come on rather than seemingly instant incandescent lighting, and I have had to change out some fixtures to fit the bulbs.
Forget $15. I have been getting mine for between $2.50-3.00.