Innovative New Approaches Seen for Fluorescent Lighting
Mention fluorescent bulbs to most people and they think, drab office with an ugly overhead light fixture that gives people's skin a sickly greenish tint.
But, as the old adage goes, necessity really is the mother of invention, and current energy laws have compelled designers to find ways to make fluorescents work -and work beautifully, reports Gary White, CMKBD, CID, president, Kitchen & Bath Design, in Newport Beach, CA.
California's Title 24 mandates that kitchens and baths must be primarily lit by fluorescent light, and the first switch upon entering the room must activate that light. A lot of people run and scream when they hear that," White quips. But he insists that today's technology has fixed all the problems fluorescents used to have.
First, old fluorescent bulbs had uncontrolled color temperature. Color of light depends on the phosphor coatings inside, White explains, and this is something lamp manufacturers traditionally didn't focus on. “But now, you can buy a lamp with rare earth phosphors in it, which are more expensive, but they contain a much higher quality phosphor content, which also has a much better balanced color temperature," he elaborates. Fluorescents can now be measured accurately on the color-rendering index (which measures a lamp's ability to render the color of something correctly), and are available in warmer, or redder, tones.
"Most of our incandescent [lighting] sources have 100% color rendering index;' notes White. "Fluorescents would typically be 60%, which means it's altering the color -that's why we don't like it. But with rare earth phosphors, you can get about 88%.”
Second, consumers object to the "buzz" that results from the pulse of electricity through fluorescent bulbs. "About one out of three people are stroboscopically sensitive,' meaning they can perceive the flash, and it bothers the mind to have to deal with it, so it gives them headaches;' White explains. "But now there are ways to fix that.
"I never use fluorescent [light] so it fires the light directly into your eye;' he continues. "I always bounce it off a couple of other surfaces [first]. By doing so, putting it up inside a coffer, or firing up into the ceiling, or on top of crown mouldings, the fluorescent light hits two angles of wall first, and then bounces down, [so] the brain perceives it as solid light."
Dimability is also an issue, he reports. "With a modern ballast, [such as one offered by Lutron, I can dim fluorescent light down to 1% without buzz or flicker;' says White. "So now I've fixed all the problems. I've actually gotten to the point where I use fluorescent light when I do jobs out of state [where it's not mandated]. There's no way to beat it in terms of washing a room in general illumination without heat gain.”