Lighting

 

Do you have dingy old florescent lighting?   Did you know that burnt out florescent lights still use electricity?  Tired of the buzzing and flickering florescent tubes?  An upgrade in lighting may be just what you need!

Metal-Halide  -more efficient, provide a high color rendition index – meaning the white light brings out more color.  Longer lasting fixtures and lamps (that’s electrician talk for light bulb).  A smaller size fixture lights up a larger area, making it easier to clean, takes up less space on the ceiling.  Plug and play – fixture plugs into an outlet right next to it and hangs from a simple hook, easy to fix and replace.

LED  – more expensive fixtures but lamps last much longer (50,000 hours, that’s 11 years, maintenance free).  High color rendition index.  Very efficient, 30% more efficient than typical fluorescent.

Fluorescent -New fluorescent (T-5) bulbs are thinner and put out more lumens per tube than the older ones (T-12) and they draw less energy.  New fixtures have to be installed to use the new tubes.  The old tubes have a poorer color rendition and the new ones are a little better.  The cool white bulbs are more on the blue end of the spectrum and make many people feel uncomfortable.  The warm white bulbs are more on the red end of the spectrum and were made to try to off-set the cool blues.  Using a combination of the the cool blue and warm red still does not make for a true white light.

Incandescent – also halogen.  100 year old technology is not very efficient.  Incandescent is a yellow light and has a poor color rendition index. Halogen has a high color rendition index and is a middle of the spectrum white light, but it is inefficient. 

What is color rendition index?  What is red?  When light strikes a red sweater it absorbs every color but red.  You see the reflected red light.  If the light that hits the red sweater is not full spectrum, you will not see the true red. 

What does mean to be an efficient bulb?  If the bulb makes a lot of heat, you are paying for energy to not only light up the area but also to produce all that heat.  And in the summer, you then have to pay to cool it back off!  Not efficient.  Bulbs that don’t produce as much heat are more efficient.  Efficiency is lumens to wattage ratio, so the more lumens (brightness) you get for the wattage, the more efficient.  And wattage is your electric bill.