Saving the earth by going greenish
When I moved in to my current home several years ago, it became the first place I had lived in with recessed lighting built into the ceilings of almost all the rooms. The ceilings are high - close to 10′, and I am far from that height (some men are known to exaggerate their height, but that’s a bit of a stretch). This would make changing bulbs a bit of a challenge, but fortunately for me, the bulbs were all fresh when I moved in and only recently have started to burn out.
Like most people, I’ve typically used standard incandescent light bulbs without putting much thought into it. For years, there wasn’t really much alternative. In past years, however, I’ve noticed these odd looking compact fluorescent bulbs advertised as energy efficient replacement for their standard counterparts. You’ve probably seen these. They’re typically spiral shaped (unlike the long tubes that most people associate with fluorescent lights). They don’t flicker, though sometimes take a second or so to turn on after the switch is flipped. The big advantage is that they supposedly use about 1/4 of the power of standard incandescent bulbs while producing a comparable amount of light. They also are advertised as having a particularly long life (up to 5 or more years, based on the packaging). I’ve used a couple of these previously in non-recessed fixtures with moderate success. The only downside is that the color these light bulbs produced is a bit, well, greenish compared to the standard fare.
I never paid much attention to the color of light coming from bulbs until recently. After all, aren’t most bulbs white? It turns out there’s quite a spectrum of “white” that is generated by different types of light. Most incandescent “soft white” bulbs generate a white that has a “color temperature” of 2700K. That’s actually a bit yellow. Anyone who has taken photographs indoors and outdoors with the same camera without taking the advantage of some sort of white balancing mechanism (built in to many cameras) will realize that, though our eyes are able to adjust to the differences in lighting color, there is a big difference in the “white” generated by different light sources. Though I always think of sunlight as being yellowish, it’s actually a less yellow than the light produced by most indoor bulbs. I’m particularly partial to halogen lighting, which is typically not very efficient but produces a slightly cooler (bluer) white at around 3000K. The light from a camera flash is bluer still at 5000K.
Fluorescent lighting has typically been on the blue end of the spectrum. Many modern compact fluorescent bulbs have been formulated to blend in to the standard indoor lighting mix by generating a light of around 2700K. Unfortunately, there’s more to light than just the color temperature. Light can have a different “quality” depending on the spectrum of colors it generates. Apparently a “color rendering index” of 100 is the best, though most compact fluorescents I’ve seen are closer to 82. Perhaps that’s why they seem to look a bit greenish to my eyes, even though their color temperature should place them at a similar level of white to my other bulbs.
Now that my recessed lighting is starting to need replacement, I’ve been looking to see if I can be a bit more energy efficient by switching to CF bulbs. I’ve leared a good deal about a vast sea of knowledge that was previously foreign to me. It turns out the bulbs I use are of the “R30″ variety and are on a dimmer circuit. Recently, several manufacturers have started cranking out R30 dimmable compact fluorescents. Perfect, right? Not quite.
I installed the first bulb, a GE FLE15/2DVR30SWCD (quite a mouthful) along side its incandescent neighbors in the kitchen and the difference was subtle, but easily apparent to the observant eye. The aforementioned greenish hue is one factor that separates this bulb. Despite using only 15W (vs the 65W of its standard cousins), it’s actually a bit brighter than the other bulbs, though they say compact fluorescents fade over time. The most apparent difference is that it dims far less than the incandescents. While the standard bulbs can dim down to only a hint of brightness, the GE 15W can limit it’s output to what seems like about 50% of its maximal luminosity.
As I mentioned before, one of the touted benefits of these “CFLs” (compact fluorescent lights) is their longevity. Naturally, when the next bulb decided its time had come, I reached for another GE dimmable CFL. While trying to quiet a crying baby, I took advantage of its dimmabilty to try to create a calm environment that I hoped would induce a sleep. And induce sleep it did, in both the baby and the bulb. The bulb’s sleep, however, was permanent. Though it had been installed for less than 24 hours, it flickered briefly then refused to awaken from its slumber, even after I had given it what I thought was more than adequate time to recuperate. I’m not sure if bulbs need to recuperate, but I figured it was worth a shot.
GE was understanding and they are shipping me a replacement of the rather expensive bulb. We’ll see if this one lasts closer to the promised 4 years. And if going green is worth the hassle in the long run.