Q: I'm in a bit of a quandry. Replacing my incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs sounds wonderful, but the light it gives off gives me a headache. Fluorescent light has always done this to me, and while I can't avoid it in the classroom or the office, my home was always a safe abode free of the flickering ultra-bright lights and filled with the warm glow of incandescents…
...Is there a way to make CFLs less headache-inducing? Are there 'daylight' CFLs?
Sent by Kate
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I have can lights in my kitchen that take mini-spots, so I definitely wanted CFLs to keep the heat down. The first batch I bought was 'daylight', because I wanted good bright light for cooking, and was WAY too bright. Luckily Home Depot is great about returns, so I traded them in for the 'Bright White', and they are perfect. There's also a 'Soft White' that I'd imagine would be good for most other applications. I think the brand was EcoSmart, I believe it's the Home Depot brand.
The color temperature doesn't affect brightness. Wattage does. "Daylight" bulbs means the color temperature is 5000K or thereabouts - closely reproducing the colors produced by the sun during the day. Lower temperatures result in cooler (more bluish) whites while higher ones produce warmer whites.
A quick trip to any major store would answer this question. Lowes/Home Depot/Target/insert big brand here all carry CFL's with different spectrums. http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls_color
My husband has the same problem with CFLs, so we decided to try the new LED bulbs that are coming into the market. The ones we purchased were a little dimmer than we're accustomed to, but I'm sure we can find ones that are a little brighter for other areas of the house. So far, they work like a charm - we love the warm look they give and they helped drop our power bill by $20 the first month we used them. We're slowly replacing all of our incandescents with LEDs.
We found our first set at Sam's, of all places, but they're available on Amazon too, as well as in limited supply at some hardware stores.
I agree with Fala, LED is the way to go. I will eventually get around to that, but for the time being I love my pink bulbs. I get a headache from CFL's as well, so I just opt for fewer lights on or candles to prevent energy waste.
Good Luck!
LED's are still in their infancy as far as daylight simulation goes, but there is a high likelihood the headache you are experiencing is due to the light pulsing that Fluorescent lights use...
Compact LED's will give a bluish cast, but do not pulse like Fluorescent. This website has a variety of types, some directional (intended for ceiling use) some non-directional (for in lamps, etc...), in a variety of shapes, sizes, and tones (from warm white to cool white).
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fedison_spot.html
Good luck!
GE's Reveal line (my fav) now includes CFL bulbs as well! My husband and I are really excited about this and are ready to work them into the fixtures in our home as our incandescent Reveals burn out because we're pretty picky about the color of the light in our home.