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Comment by superuser2 | Hacker News Reader

In the rush to replace all incandescents with CFLs, no one seemed to care about the poor quality of light we now live and work under. Fluorescent lighting ruins my once-beautiful university campus at night, makes my parents house dreary and grim, etc. I hope some day we'll realize that the energy cost savings weren't free and pay some attention to the effect lighting has on our spaces and, correspondingly, our moods when we inhabit them.

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Incandescent light is simply more familiar to you, it is hardly ideal. It is very high on the yellow/red spectrum compared to sunlight.

LED has a better balance than incandescent or fluorescent, but still not "natural" light.

See http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/reviews/g...

Incandescent bulbs which mostly emit light in the yellow–red part of the spectrum are much better for nighttime lighting, because they make less glare in your peripheral vision (which is dominated by rods and “S” cones), have less effect on night vision (short-wavelength light causes the eyes to become bright-adapted, making the rods completely useless), and cause less disruption to sleep cycles (Melanopsin is less sensitive to longer wavelengths). Furthermore, incandescent bulbs have a nice smooth spectrum, which in my experience results in better preservation of color relationships.

LEDs can be okay if you make an effort to find ones which are ~3000K CCT, and diffuse them properly. Fluorescent bulbs are invariably unpleasant, and tend to give me a headache, in addition to making everything look garish.

LED car headlights and streetlamps of CCT >3000K should be illegal, they’re much too bright in the short-wavelenth part of the spectrum, blinding drivers and pedestrians, disrupting people’s sleep (and animals and plants), creating nasty light pollution which blacks out the stars, and not actually improving visibility compared to less-blue LEDs or high-pressure sodium lamps. Same goes for flashlights and camping lamps, though those probably shouldn’t be literally illegal, just discouraged.

I hope someday display technology improves a bit and can support broader spectrum output with more than three isolated/intense primaries. Ink on paper is much nicer to look at than pixels on current screens. (Of course screens have the nice feature that they can easily change what they show.)

For daytime lighting a carefully constructed LED lamp might be better than incandescent lamps, but I much prefer just sitting near a window.

Incandescent light bulbs are still made for 'industrial' use and can be bought from Amazon and electrical suppliers in the UK. I still use a couple of 40w bulbs in steel reflector luminaires upstairs in the 'cave' because I prefer the light.

May well move to a 'chandelier' style luminaire downstairs for Xmas look and warm spectrum.

Days are short at this time of year at 52.5 North. Art shops sell 'daylight' bulbs (incandescent with light blue glass envelope).

Glad it's not just me. Since the War on Incandescents, I have realized that lighting fundamentally changes the nature of a space, including our homes.

CFL yellows everything and washes out colors. I believe some people are more sensitive to this effect. For me, it deadens everything. I think some are sensitive to the frequencies as well, just as to the old interlaced monitors.

LEDs have gotten better, but the light tends to be harsher and less diffuse than incandescent. Even the newer halogen incandescents on offer tend to be too white or harsh for my taste.

Never realized that the "default" incandescent brightness and temperature were so perfect until they became harder to find amidst the push towards energy efficiency. Since then, our living spaces have become dimmer and more lifeless. It literally changes how we experience life.

I thought I just needed to get used to it, but the effect is still very noticeable to me.

From the study: "participants were exposed daily to 30 minutes from a fluorescent light box soon after waking up."

But subjectively, I agree with you; the quality of most fluorescent lighting is aesthetically inferior to halogen or other incandenscents.

I wonder, could LEDs be used to provide lighting that's both aesthetically more pleasing and more energy-efficient?

All my bulbs are LED. There's a local government subsidy for them that makes them very affordable. I think the light looks much better than CFL and they're cheaper to operate and last longer.

I have soft white CFLs that look identical to incandescent bulbs. I also recently bought some full spectrum 5500K CFLs for my bathroom vanity, in an effort to see if full spectrum light in the morning will help my mood. A lot of the "daylight" CFLs are not full spectrum, and are a harsh blue. Things look rather natural under full spectrum once they warm up and your eyes adjust. When I turn off the full spectrum light, it is interesting to see just how yellow "soft white" light is.

No CFLs are “full spectrum”. The fundamental nature of the technology is to create a number of sharp “spikes” in the spectrum. This inevitably causes distorted color relationships relative to daylight or incandescent lighting.

The bulbs also cost much more to produce than incandescents and are full of toxic mercury, and wear out much more quickly than advertised when turned on and off frequently (as is typical in residential uses).

This page mirrors my thoughts reasonably well (http://www.richsoil.com/CFL-fluorescent-light-bulbs.jsp). On the whole, CFLs are a handout to a small handful of rich lighting companies, sold to the public under false pretenses.

I am aware it's not truly "full spectrum", but it is more tolerable than the harsher bluer "daylight" CFLs. These CFLs were designed to provide truer whites for photography. They were also cheaper than buying a lightbox.

Incandescent bulbs also use about 3 - 4 times the power, and burnout quite often. There is no perfect solution.

Soft white incandescents are warm and cozy; soft white CFLs are just yellow.

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