OT: Best Type of Fluorescent Light for Office Use

DJSTEVEZ

Professor of Human Moves
Silver Member
Hi Gang,
admittedly this is an odd question for the forum, but with the collective braintrust I'm confident I'll get a good answer.

The current recessed Fluorescent light tubes in my office are horrible.
Some flicker, and the color shades differ quite a bit.
I want to replace them with the Healthiest kind available.
I would like to go LED but that's likely cost prohibitive.
I heard "Full Spectrum" is the best type of Fluorescent light tubes.
Are there different types of Full Spectrum Fluorescent light tubes and if so which types are best (for an office environment)?

THANX!!! -Z-
 

greyghost

Coast to Coast
Silver Member
But I do have some full spectrum fluorescent style bulbs and I like them much better, not as much as the led but better than the norm


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

homey123

Registered
What type of Fluorescent tubes do you have now? Are they the thinner (T8) or the older (T12). They should have a model number on them. If unsure let me know the model number and I can figure out. You could also have issues with a ballast.

The full spectrum lights were real popular a few years back. They are a much cooler color temperature (5500-6500). Most offices have either 4000K or 3500K. Let me know what you have and I can help from there,
 

pocket

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Very happy with the 4K led replacements we've been transitioning to at our facility.
 

BobTfromIL

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
You might want to consider going with LED. a local bank here did it and it looks great.
I don't know if they replaced the existing 2x4 fixtures or just retrofitted the LED.
 

onepocketron

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I changed out my flourescent bulbs for LED bulbs, and did not have to change out the fixture. I liked my fixture so I wanted to keep it there an not replace it. I did however, have to change out the tomb stones in the fixture as mine were not the right ones. There are several videos on youtube that show you exaclty how to do this, and it is very simple. I had a 4 bulb fixture in the kitchen and it took me about an hour to convert them to LED. It made a HUGE difference!! In my conversion, I just had to make sure I had the "toggled" LED bulbs, thus, eliminating the ballast completely( the ballast was what had been causing me the problems). Below is a link to one of the examples. If I can do it, anyone can. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qcP0vGeH1Q
 

homey123

Registered
Type B LED Tubes are the ones where you remove the ballast and direct wire to the sockets. The sockets need to be a shunted type and Leviton (Mfg. of many of the sockets). wrote a white paper that many of the older sockets were not recommended for direct wire use. Type A LED tubes are the ones where you use your existing ballast.

In theory a LED tube should be the same brightness as a good Fluorescent but uses about 1/2 the wattage. For a 12 hour day/365 day application you would save roughly $ .50 per watt saved.
 

mchnhed

I Came, I Shot, I Choked
Silver Member
Be sure to verify the Color Temperature of any lamp you buy.
The OP is correct that 3500K to 4000K looks best.

LED's are great but be aware that some tubes only have chips on one side of the tube.
No reflected light upwards into the housing reflector. This tends to make the light very directional.
A lot of less expensive LED lamps are made of cheap to produce LED chips.
These tend to be very, very Blue White.
Usually 5000k to 6000K.
Looks nice and bright but is a bad Color Temp for everyday use especially in a home.
 

Los Gatos Taki

Registered
There are fluorescent bulbs for warehouse type lighting and fluorescent bulbs for office work lighting. If your bulbs in the same fixture are glowing different colors, they are different types. The wrong bulbs in an office may cause eye strain and/or headaches.
I have seen the new led bulbs and they seem to work very good and give emit more light.
 
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