Quote:
Originally Posted by WD-40
Overall I am extremely pleased with my choice in bulbs, short of the price...
Thanks for reading .. Dennis
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WD_40,
Thanks for the info.
I'm in the process of switching over too, but I'm moving much slower than you did.
I'm posting my thinking process on the matter, as I am curious if your considerations were similar.
I have categorized my lighting into:
- task lighting
- fill lighting
- accent lighting
and I have recently added a third category:
Task Lighting is for doing a specific task that requires the best visual clarity I can obtain. Examples of tasks are writing, drawing, machining, using any power tool, and reading (sometimes even cooking). I 've had a strong preference for halogen lighting for task lighting, since it is bright, contrasty, and has a full color spectrum. The recent crop of high-power LED, like the kind you found at the big-box stores works very well for task lighting. In some cases even better than halogen, because the color balance is good, and the point-source gives excellent contrast, making it my preferred light for machining, where I want to be able to see every nick and.scratch.
Fill Lighting is used to illuminate the volume of a room, and the contrast is not so important. I have also concluded that the level of light can be much lower than I used to use. I find that CFL is great for this. If I'm not mistaken, CFL gives more light per watt than LED, but the light from CFL radiates in all directions, making it really good for fill and less efficient for task lighting. I'm very selective what I watch in TV, but when I do, I like it to be a good experience. I have two strings of white xmas tree lights fastened to the upper edge of the wall behind my couch to provide low-level fill for watching TV. They provide just enough fill light so the TV does not seem overly contrasty, and because of their location, they don't distract the eye from the TV image. I have them on a dimmer, so I can get the exact level I want (and even save a bit of power).
Accent Lighting is for lighting an object or area of interest. The light intensity level is also somewhere between task and fill. This is a way to use light that I am just beginning to explore and I find it to be very interesting. I'm realizing that the proper use of accent lighting can make a small space feel much larger and more interesting.
Passage Lighting for me, this is a recently added category. Passage lighting would be lighting used to provide a minimum light level in a hallway or the route to the garage, or a staircase. Night lights are also passage lights. I have found that the illumination level and quality required of passage lighting is so low that it is the perfect place to use my first generation LED lights that I still have laying around. My son uses thrift-store LED xmas tree lights for passage lighting. They pull little power and also add a festive note.
Overall, I want a fairly high level of lumens per square foot in task lighting, a low to moderate level in fill lighting, and a low level in passage lighting.
I have had to really search out the right CFL for fill lighting, because for my preferences, they're just too bright. I have found some that are about 5 watts (equivalent to 40 watt incandescent) that I like. I have found that I prefer to have several small fill lights than one large fill light. I also want to experiment with very small 12v halogen bulbs, run at 5 to 7 volts. I have collected some cell-phone chargers for this purpose.
Please don't misread these photographs, they are strictly for making a point about different types of lighting. My own digs are very humble, however I'm still using these techniques.
Regards,
-AC_Hacker