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

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.

That may not be a coincidence....

[coyote-san]

Hmm... on the one hand you have large rooms lit by the standard el cheapo fluorescent tubes. On the other hand you have a bunch of educated people prefering darkness to bad illumination.

Think it's just a coincidence?

Now toss in the fact that most monitor's (and all TVs) are "hot" - they're far more blue than they should be since it's a cheap way for the manufacturer to make them look "bright." (That's also why rooms with TVs look blue from outside.) Better monitors allow you to adjust the "color temperature", but most people don't know about this control or find a cooler temperature "dull."

This means that people who work in front of a screen are getting hit with excess blue, and the overhead fluorescent lights also have excess blue.

Still think it's just a coincidence?

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing OSHA mandates that overhead lights be full-spectrum and monitors be adjustable to the natural temperature (6500K?). It takes a few days to get used to it, but it's a lot more comfortable.