I have to make some decisions about lighting the lobby of a six-flat building, stairwell, hallways, back porches, as well as a security light for the yard.
The basic decision is: do we go with old fashioned warm yellowish lights, or the new cool "bluish "daylight" types?
Any suggestions or experience appreciated.
I find I cant stand "Daylight bulbs" they are harsh on the eyes, I stick with Soft White, HD has a 9 year warranty on CFLs , get a 4 pack for about 8$ the soft what are the Green pack, if you want dayligt its their Red packaging.
For general access areas such as that, can't see how the color temperature could make a lick of real difference...go for cheap 'n cheery would be my recommendation--if they're prone to breakage or theft, stick w/ the incandescent; otherwise the energy savings of the cfl's may pay. Outdoor temperature problems with the latter have been noted earlier.
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Agreed about the daylight bulbs: I'd use those only for really high up fixtures. Any closer, and they're blindingly bright. The warm white ones are a safe bet in other locations.
I've tried the cheap cool white bulbs, the warm bulbs and the daylight bulbs.
I find that the daylight bulbs are just way to bright and harsh. The warm bulbs seem dim and put an orange tinge on everything. The cool whites look fluorescent, but give the best overall lighting.
This is in my basement.
My suggestion is to simply get one of each and try them out.
Hallways should have warm color lights. At typical apartment building hallway lighting levels, 4100 K and higher easily appears "dreary gray". Even 3500 K can appear a little "dreary gray". I would use 2700 K - the usual warm color of compact fluorescents.
If the illumination level is on the bright side, then 3500 K tends to look good.
As for stairwells - it depends on how much light you have, and whether they are used routinely or you have an elevator. If they are more dimly lit, go for daylight color - scotopic vision has a significant enough effect to make the more-blue light have greater "illuminating power" - but the stairwells will look dreary. If the stairwells are to be used routinely, use warm color and be sure to have enough light.
One thing to watch out for: In my building, the stairwell lights are fully enclosed. CFLs above 14 watts or so can easily overheat in enclosed ceiling fixtures.
The lobby should definitely have warm color light.
Back porches - I am leaning to cooler color there, to take advantage of scotopic vision being likely to have some significant effect.
Yard security lighting: Go for cool daylight color. Scotopic vision will have a significant role in the sensation of illumination.
Metal halide lamps do well for outdoor illumination at night. Use the lowest wattage that you can find unless the yard is huge.
Mercury vapor and sodium vapor lamps will not illuminate a yard as well even for a given amount of photometric output, because they stimulate scotopic vision less. Despite a more-bluish color, mercury vapor light does not stimulate scotopic vision as well as metal halide or fluorescent light.
Your yard fixture should be of a design that throws the light onto the yard, and not into the sky. Many security lights send a fair amount of light above the horizon. Look for fixtures of a floodlight style rather than a "wall pack" style or the style of those traditional 175-watt mercury security lights. Floodlight style fixtures will put much more light where you want it, so you won't need to use as much electricity. A floodlight style fixture with maybe around 50-60 watts of daylight color compact fluorescent can outperform a traditional 175 watt mercury vapor fixture for yard lighting.
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
There are outdoor ones. I like Philips 5000K ("daylight") ones for porch lights.
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
Depending on exactly which "color" you are talking about. "Daylight" is not a new color for fluorescent bulbs, in fact it was the original color when they first made the bulbs many decades ago, emitting blue light. "Cool white" was a color that came out after WWII as a better light to work under and many thought it was too gray. Some of the many other "warm" colors are much better especially when mixed with or replacing incandescent bulbs. It is all what you prefer not what I like.
This is advice I agree with: I'm using a single halogen reflector floodlight to illuminate most of my backyard, and the light stays within the yard itself, not flooding over into the neighbors. The first bulb in ours lasted 4 years (just changed it back in November), and it was turned on and off frequently each evening by us and the dogs.
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