That company has 18 to to 45w CFLs. 45W ones = 200W incandescent. Not bad,
Enough of those in your face and you could almost get a sun tan while Vegas-ing :)

Not much chance of a sun tan, very little UV.
Osram make similar lamps with a CRI of >95, main use is art galleries and museums. Philips do much the same kind of thing as well, I think NEC also. No fancy hype or 'interesting' claims from either of those manufacturers.

Bob.

CFL's come in many color temperatures and when first turned on (60% output I estimate) take about 20 seconds to reach full brightness. I kind of settled on color temperatures between 3500K and 5500K. There are some that emit a greenish light which looks terrible. There is also a very slight hesitation before they light up which can be annoying.
JJK

Soniclight,

Interesting and also related to natural light. You may find in researching that the light sources also used for fishtanks and similar locations for growing plantlife, Coral etc.
These special bulbs cover the full sprectrum of true white light similar to the sun.

If you have any photo-phobic related issues I recommend low-voltage full DC (Direct Current) filtered DC Regulated PowerSupply, incandescent or halogen lighting.
Any good regulated pure DC power supply should work. Less expensive DC power supplies only rectify the AC voltage. Half wave DC flickers at 60hz & full-wave flickers at 120hz. Similar to AC flickering so use of a non-filtered DC supply is the same results as using an AC supply.

DLP HDTV's flicker due to it's color wheel spinning. When DLP was first introduced some persons experienced headaches & motion sensitivity watching their new DLP's. They doubled the color wheels speed (rpm) to minimize this effect.

But room lighting with respect to CRT viewing is important. If a CRT is using a vertical scan of 85Hz and room lighting is AC 60hz there is a 25hz pulsation from reflective surfaces. You can do the math, 70hz refresh rate / 60hz room lighting = 10hz reflective pulsations.
These reflective pulsations do affect persons that are photo-phobic.

Hope these few tips help.

Interesting on your K figures. Will look into it.
Now as to...

"...a very slight hesitation before they light up which can be annoying."

We modern day "civilized" humanoids sure have become an impatient bunch, hun? :) (I'm just as guilty of that as anyone).
I kind of doubt that a woman who walks miles for filthy drinking water for her kids every day in Darfur would mind the slight delay.

I have used full spectrun flourescents in my office for many years. Maybe 10 or more.

I started after a local grade school did an experiment that only the school principle was aware of until the end of the school year. The school used only flourescents. They changed out every one to full spectrum during the summer when school was not in session. At the end of the school year they compared the absenses, discipline problems and test scores to the prior 5 years. The difference was dramatic. The entire school system now uses full spectrum.

I went to my local electrical wholesaler and bought a case for my office. We bit more expensive, but worth it.

Can I prove we feel better, have less sickness, and are less depressed? No. But I believe it. And believing it works, certainly doesn't hurt.

David

Soniclight,
I edited my post in the other thread.
My previous post in this thread relates to room lighting & viewing a computer screen at the same time.
Room, office lighting is all reflective light when viewing objects, reading a book.....
Computer screens are projectors of light, different.

A good computer screen is worth the money. A good size to display large text, reduce eye strain.
Hope things work out for you.

I have been using compact flos originally designed for aquarium use. You can find them ranging from 6500K, through 8,000, 10,000, 15,000, and even 20,000K. I use a mixture of 6,500 and 10,000K as I like the effect on colors. Sometimes I use 15,000, if I want special effects.

Each company makes a variety, not all the same color temp. You can ask them for color charts and they will gladly supply them.

I have been using CoraLife 21in bulbs which use 55w each. There are various lengths from various companies, with 1, 2, or 4 conjoined tubes.

They have a USEFUL life of about 1 year before they dramatically loose output. They might work for 2 years, (and I put them in non-critical places then,) but the color is not as good and the amount of light is quite a bit less after a year.

I like them.

"They have a USEFUL life of about 1 year before they dramatically loose output."

All fluro tubes loose output over time and are very dim before they finally fail. Regularly replacing tubes leads to a much nicer work / home environment. Using HF ballasts gives slightly more light for the same power and extends the life of the tubes and reduces flicker. Having a good reflector in the fitting also gives you more light per watt.

I'd be just a little careful about using acquarium or plant tubes to light a work environment. Check the specs for UV output or do your own fade test. A piece of blue wool seems to be the 'standard' test. If it fades noticeably under the light it's a fair bet there's UV coming out of the tubes.

Bob.

Thanks, guys. As far as the delay and pre-light up flicker, my understanding is that it's due to ballasts used: old ones are magnetic, new ones electronic. Magnetic cycle at 60 per second, electronic at 10,000 or so.

Electronic being far better for one's eyes since way to fast for the human eye to detect such ultra high speeds.

As far as monitor-to-eyes effect, I switched to dual LCD monitors from CRT in part because of eye strain when I built my new system back in 2006.

4eyes: I've acknowledge your gesture in the other thread :)

SonicLight,
4eyes: I've acknowledge your gesture in the other thread :)Thankyou.
Your discussion has much to do with my trade. New enginneering designs use electronic ballasts with new Hi-Color T-8 tubes of various selections. Although on paper this all plays out well it's been my experience that some standard incandescent indoor flood bulbs or quartz halogen lighting on good dimmers may be one of the best selections. Commonly called track lighting or on Broadway Stage Lighting(without filters). Standard incandescent indoor floods produce soft light while the quartz halogen is closer to true bright white. My media room is setup with quartz halogen indirect lighting on good Lutron Dimmers. The indirect lighting means the lights shine on an object, the object reflects the light into the room. This eliminates blinding, glaring effects and works well with large screen TV's.

I think the worse design I see everyday with these new lights is the bulbs are open. You can look in the fixture and see the fluorescent tubes. On paper & engineering this is supposed to work great. In the real world for many persons these fixtures cause headaches, due to the bulb being in open view. Prismatic lens on a flourescent fixtures reduces glare & disperses the light better.

I was concerned with our local highschool suggesting using computers to replace books.
I wasn't concerned about using the computer as much as the students sitting in front of a computer screen for hours.

I feel the the biggest advantage of HDTV's are their size, not the HighDefintion. Reduces eye strain.
No matter what you select as your room lighting, the computer monitor size & quality along with your viewing distance is the most important.
Anything that reduces eye strain.
My eyes are bad, I will need surgery in the future for my cataracts . Driving at night is when I first realized these problems.
Using windows OS doesn't help either, mac or linux desktops in my opinion are better, softer & more pleasing, windows always causes eye strain for me compared to the other OS's (I know one can change the configuration, there is still something in windows that simply doesn't fit).

Interesting stuff. I'm one person currently living in one tiny apartment which doubles as my office. Due to budget and desire to not use up too much power, I like the idea of CFLs for I don't have to invest in what seems to be perhaps expensive electronic ballast fixtures for tubes.

That said, I'm still researching what would be most cost effective and practical for me. If I go the CFL route and in regards to my direct workspace (around or on my desk), I am probably going to enclose them in a couple of home-made light box type things (using diffused translucent cover).

The ceiling light one will just be naked since I don't look into it directly anyway.

Electronic ballasts don't have to be expensive.

For greenscreen work, I use "Lithonia 1271 Heavy Duty Worklight" fixtures, about $40 each at Home Depot, with electronic ballasts built-in.

These fixtures take two 48" 40W tubes, such as the made-in-the-USA Philips "Natural Sunshine" 5000K Full Spectrum tubes Home Depot sells for about $6 each, with a 7-year warranty.

These tubes have a CRI of 92, which is as good as or better than $20 tubes you buy elsewhere.

This is Philips' "full spectrum lighting," not their bluest daylight tube. They also have a 6500K tube, but that one has only an 84 CRI, so definitely not full spectrum.

I installed full spectrum tubes in my own office at a company I used to work for. The entire rest of the building had good quality regular tubes.

I never said anything about this, but people visiting my office frequently remarked that they somehow felt much better there.

After a year, I brought this up with the CEO, suggesting to install full spectrum lighting across the company.

Initially received VERY positively, the project died an instant death when the CEO found that the company was paying $0.86 each for regular tubes, but would have to pay more than $15.00 each for the good stuff (at the time, about 15 years ago).

Hmmm... Aside from :( CEO story, a good point to ponder. Even one large fixture may work out for me too since your example is affordable. Thanks.

Sonis.... I know you are in LA so is there a reason you can't just put your gear out on the balcony? I have a hood I made (from canvas board and a music stand, black paint and black duct tape) that my laptop is on and I'm out here on patio. The french doors open into the air cooled kitchen and the liquor bar and my feet are often not far from the pool. REAL full spectrum with the UV too!