Long ago I purchased some fluorescent tubes to replace cool white tubes in my office, which were driving me crazy. The tubes I bought had a pinkish sort of tinge when they were warming up, and had a warmer sort of color, which was soothing by comparison to the cool white tubes. I think the ones I bought might have been sold as grow tubes, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I would like some bulbs of that color temperature/type, either tubes or compact fluorescents. Can anyone here tell me what the temperature might be of such bulbs, or what to call them if I go shopping for them? Thank very much.

Multi Spectrum, or full spectrum, look it up.
I installed them in a girls home that got depressed really bad in the winter time.
They changed her whole life with something as simple as differant lighting.
http://www.fullspectrumsolutio...ent_bulbs_33_ctg.htm

This message has been edited. Last edited by: joecaption,

Most often the packaging will provide a brief description of the light output. Temp? Thats another story though. Methinks while the MAY make a difference it is the placebo effect more than anything. Luck to ya.

Razorboy:

No, they wouldna been gro tubes. Grow tubes have a strong red component to their spectrum and don't look like normal lighting at all. That's cuz when it comes to plants, blue light encourages the growth of the green parts of the plant, whereas red light encourages the flowering of the plant.

According to this wiki web site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

if you get fluorescent tubes with a colour temperature between 2700 and 3300 deg. K, you'll have roughly the same spectrum of light as incandescent bulbs put out. Go to the low end of the range for the "softest, warmest" light, which is what you might want in a romantic restaurant setting, and go to the high end of the range for an office setting.

PS: Degrees K is degrees Kelvin. 0 degrees Kelvin is absolute zero where all atomic and molecular motion stops. 0 degrees Celsius is 273.15 degrees Kelvin. There is a similar temperature scale called "degrees Rankine" where 0 degrees Rankine is also absolute zero and 0 degrees Fahrenheit is 459.67 degrees R.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nestor,

most big box stores now have displays showing the different colors of their fluorescents.

color temp is critically important to photographers, as film was optimized for specific color temps, and video cameras need to be white-balanced to avoid off casts.

"warm white" corresponds to incandescent lamp colors, "cool white" is your usual office blue, and "daylight" is stark stuff, but a good match for a workbench. the more blue a fluorescent has in it, generally, the more lumens per watt, but also the harsher it is to you.

green is the hardest color to get into a glow lamp because of the cost and inefficiency of the phosphors. "full spectrum" light has a better balance of colors including green, but may cost a little more (or a lot more if a specialty lampmaker like Ott made the bulb.)