Hacker News Reader

I think the reason fluorescent lightning looks bad is not the color temperature, it's the narrow spectrum of emitted light.

View on HN

Fluorescent doesn't actually have a narrow spectrum. What it has is very strong peaks by certain lines.

i.e. most of the light is UV, which is converted to other colors by phosphors - in precisely the same method LED uses. If it stopped there it would be great.

But it also makes visible light in narrow peaks, and this messes with the color, so they compensate by adjusting the phosphors for the complementary color, but that hurts the color rendering.

And the flicker.

Modern "electronic" fluorescent ballasts don't flicker, at least when not broken. (They use a frequency that is high enough that the phosphors' glow hasn't stopped before the cycle is over). The old "magnetic" ones did, but those really ought not be used anymore. They're less efficient and often flicker and hum.

Bulbs at the end of their life can flicker, but those of course should be replaced.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com