Full Spectrum Lighting - Is it any better?

lennon asms: "Lighting in my apartment sucks. I am giving some thought to full-spectrum lighting fixtures, like the the Vita-lite. Some places say it's not any better than regular lighting, others say it's just great. What do you think?" I find the quality of lighting in my work environment to be very important. Would lights such as these be better than your standard soft-white or flourescent bulbs?

Comments

Bounce the light

[Usquebaugh]

I really like soft diffused light, I have 40watt bulbs that I bounce off my walls and ceiling the reflected light is much softer.

If you have to do a lot of paper reading then this is not the best solution but for staring at a TV or monitor it works well for me.

Of course the other solution is not to do any work after dark!

Works for me

[maetenloch]

I put full spectrum bulbs in my office several months ago, and so far I've been very happy with them. I have a private office, but unfortunately without any windows so the only light sources are fluorescent lights. I got the full spectrum lights from Home Depot for only about $6 (GE I think). There are some other specialized manufacturers that charge $40+ for their bulbs, but as far as I can tell, they're essentially the same as the ones i got at Home Depot.

The difference is quite amazing - I never realized how sickly yellow the old lights were. The new lights have much more blue in them, and really do seem more like natural sunlight. Now I feel like I have skylights in the ceiling.

I can't tell if changing the lighting improved my performance, but it did make feel more comfortable and alert in my office. My co-workers like to keep their office dim except for their monitors - not me, I find that a dark room strains my eyes and makes me sleepy. I may be an exception since a lot of programmers like a dim room setup, and in our main office the engineering wing has no fluorescent lights on at all. Still I find that I do my best work in a naturally lighted environment. Without windows, full spectrums lights are as close as I can get.

Re:Works for me

[Judg3]

I believe he's talking about the GE Reveal bulbs. And I'd have to agree. A few months both bulbs in my office went out, so I ran down to the store and picked up a four pack of the 100 watt Reveal bulbs (only 2.99$). Brought em home, pulled one out - saw the weird pinkish coloring (could be pink, i dunno - im colorblind), decided to give em a try anway... And I was amazed.

The colors now are crisp and clear, and the price is just pennies or so above the normal cost of a 4 pack of regular bulbs. I went out and switched most of my house over, and will never go back! I used to think the headaches I got from staring at my PC all day was eyestrain, after I put these bulbs in they went away.

Amazing what a 30 cent change in lighting does, eh?

Full Spectrum - the only way! :)

[Stillman]

We had FS lighting installed in our offices at the beginning of erm...last year.

I could not go back. I used to get headaches on a fairly regular basis that I just put down to tiredness/stress/whatever. They went away after about two weeks with the new lights.

I find I can work longer hours with no problems - except an annoyed wife!

I also find I can concentrate a lot better.

My cow-orkers have all noticed similar benefits - we were discussing it at our christmas function.

So, yeah, on the whole...get those bad boys! :)

Color Temperature and Bulb Quality Affect Light

[stinkydog]

The quality of flouresenct light is affected by many factors:

Color Temperature
Bulb Quality (you get whast you pay for)
Power and Ballast quality (Flicker)

For some other thoughts check this out. It is about lighting fish tanks and not cubes but it is still applicable. I supplement my flouresents with an incandescent bulb for better quality of light. More information on lighting theory is available here.

Try some of this if you want a different color.