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Comment by nrjames | Hacker News Reader

I’ve always been mildly bothered by the LED lighting in my home, as if it’s simultaneously bright but not illuminating. In simple consumer terms, if I wanted to shop for a variant that more closely replicated incandescent lighting, what exactly am I looking for on the packaging? Or does this not exist?

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What's available depends on the form factor, but there are some manufacturers that offer some choice in the 2700k 90+cri space nowadays.

It’s called SSI, spectral similarity index. SSI is specified for a color temperature, eg 3200 or 5600. 100 is identical to tungsten or sunlight. Values above 85 are good.

In the UK I've not been able to find high wattage (10-20W) LED lightbulbs with high CRI, some don't even mention it in listings, let alone SSI, which I have never seen.

Where are you seeing these? Is this industrial/commercial suppliers?

It’s rare, unfortunately, and usually not in the typical bulb formats. Here’s one for example with an SSI of 89 for tungsten: https://amarancreators.com/products/amaran-100x-s?Title=Defa...

Phillips, try searching for EyeComfort. I think all of their premium bulbs have 80+ Ra.

GE Relax is my preference, with 93 Ra. A good all-around bulb.

https://www.housebeautiful.com/shopping/a31139492/ge-relax-l...

They look good, but cannot find a listings with all the details though to know exactly what I will get if I buy them.

It is a good start and I know know its wroth looking, so think you.

I buy the "warm" light LEDs, which look (to my eye) closer to incandescents.

Standard LEDs bulbs are bright white, almost bluish, and yes "bright but not illuminating" describes them well. I feel many modern car headlights have the same issue.

The human eye doesn't focus the blue end of the spectrum very well.

There is no such thing as a “standard LED lamp”. LED lamps come in a huge variety of shapes, various bases, power usage/lumen output, color rendering index, and color temperature.

Lots of companies sell cheap crappy A19 E26 base 5000K lamps, that doesn’t make them the ‘standard’.

Bulbs that test well on spectrum and flicker tests, Phillips Ultra Definition is a good one I believe.

https://www.thesmarthomehookup.com/25-soft-white-led-light-b...

Nothing on the box really means anything, so many bulbs claim high CRI and everything but in reality have terrible spectrum. So you can only go off of actual real life testing from a third party.

Ra value is (often) written on the package, go for 95+, it’s a bit hard to find but the difference is real. I Do not buy under 90.

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