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I'm interested in your light setup, particularly if you happen to use high-CRI bulbs. It also took me ages to realize how large of an effect SAD had on me. I

by wheels 4y ago

I'm interested in your light setup, particularly if you happen to use high-CRI bulbs. It also took me ages to realize how large of an effect SAD had on me. I grew up in Texas, where it wasn't much of a thing, but went to college in Michigan and then moved to Germany (where I've been for 20 years) and it took me multiple years to notice the pattern of only struggling with what I'd previously dubbed "burn out" in the winter. That I used to visit Texas every Christmas masked the effect for a while since it gave me something of a reset during the shortest days of the year. Now I manage with a combination of what I'd thought of as redonkulous amounts of lighting (20-ish bulbs in my living room, 7 in my small office), and usually 1+ months away from Berlin in the winter. It's only been relatively recent that going to your extent in terms of lumens has been possible. I was previously pushing 1000w of halogen lighting in my living room, and going to a multiple of that felt like it got into extremely wasteful territory. (There is the reasonable counterargument that in winter, all of the lighting watts also heat the apartment, but I use my lighting setup for a lot of months where I don't also need heating...) Do you also go for high-CRI bulbs? That's been a limiting factor for me at times is that I don't like the spectrum of cheaper LEDs (or CFLs) and often sourcing high-watt, high-CRI bulbs can be tricky. (I was late in switching to LEDs in general, having previously stockpiled halogen bulbs before they were banned in Europe, but a HN comment a couple years ago turned me on to high-CRI bulbs, which was a game-changer for me.)

wheels 4y ago
To add a couple concrete questions: - Did you experiment with any of the super high powered single LEDs? (e.g. 200-500w) - How big a problem is monitor glare? Do you have a special monitor (e.g. Studio Display)? I have a 400 nit monitor (brightest 42" IPS monitor at the time I bought it), and I'm worried about going all in on lighting, and then not being able to effectively being able to use my monitor.
- wincy 4y ago
  I haven’t used any super high powered LEDs mostly because I wasn’t sure I wanted to commit to this. I spent $35 on a clearance corn bulb that uses 100W and outputs 10,000 lumens, but I’m not sure I’d recommend them as the light output seems “dirtier” (i.e. it flickers in webcams). Buying $120 worth of 1600 lumen each bulbs was incremental and I bought an 8 pack every few weeks until I’d filled all my light sockets. I’m using ~400-450 nits brightness monitors and it’s fine in light mode. I can make things out in dark mode but it’s less pleasant. I don’t get monitor glare but maybe that’s due to positioning? I have the corn bulb up and to the left of me and the 28 bulbs are stuck into the ceiling fan (which looks silly but works!)
ycombinete 4y ago
I've had this issue. I have 5 1350 lumen bulbs in my office, but they are all 80 on the Color Rendering Index, and it's somehow bright and dull in here simultaneously. I think the sandblasted white chandelier covers make it worse as well.
- wheels 4y ago
  CRI80 bulbs just grate on me. Even some of the ones rated 90 I find a little annoying (which I've occasionally had to settle for for e.g. downlights in a particular depth). And some of mine that I've bought that are rated 95+, I'm skeptical of. I'm too pedantic / OCD-ish to deal with the colors being so off. If you're the sort of person that's bugged by that sort of thing, just bite the bullet and get the better bulbs. If you've still got old indansecents around, try them out in that fixture. If you feel like it restores sanity, then high CRI LEDs will too. I wish I could say, "They'll last you 10 years", but my experience with LEDs has been that I feel like they literally die as often as my old incandescents, but because I use so many lights in my home, I'm happy for the power savings.
  - ycombinete 4y ago
    Thank you, I will do that. Do you have a preferred brand/model for the high cri. shopping for bulbs is nearly as annoying as shopping for pc monitors.
    - wheels 4y ago
      Depends on the format and your location. If you're in Europe, and mention the size of the bulbs then I sometimes have preferences. Unfortunately, some of my go-to bulbs here are no longer in production. (Honestly, I have the feeling that high CRI bulbs are getting harder to find.) I find high CRI bulbs hard enough to shop for that I've half-debated starting an online shop for them specifically.

by wheels 4y ago

wheels 4y ago

To add a couple concrete questions: - Did you experiment with any of the super high powered single LEDs? (e.g. 200-500w) - How big a problem is monitor glare? Do you have a special monitor (e.g. Studio Display)? I have a 400 nit monitor (brightest 42" IPS monitor at the time I bought it), and I'm worried about going all in on lighting, and then not being able to effectively being able to use my monitor.

wincy 4y ago
I haven’t used any super high powered LEDs mostly because I wasn’t sure I wanted to commit to this. I spent $35 on a clearance corn bulb that uses 100W and outputs 10,000 lumens, but I’m not sure I’d recommend them as the light output seems “dirtier” (i.e. it flickers in webcams). Buying $120 worth of 1600 lumen each bulbs was incremental and I bought an 8 pack every few weeks until I’d filled all my light sockets. I’m using ~400-450 nits brightness monitors and it’s fine in light mode. I can make things out in dark mode but it’s less pleasant. I don’t get monitor glare but maybe that’s due to positioning? I have the corn bulb up and to the left of me and the 28 bulbs are stuck into the ceiling fan (which looks silly but works!)

ycombinete 4y ago

I've had this issue. I have 5 1350 lumen bulbs in my office, but they are all 80 on the Color Rendering Index, and it's somehow bright and dull in here simultaneously. I think the sandblasted white chandelier covers make it worse as well.

wheels 4y ago
CRI80 bulbs just grate on me. Even some of the ones rated 90 I find a little annoying (which I've occasionally had to settle for for e.g. downlights in a particular depth). And some of mine that I've bought that are rated 95+, I'm skeptical of. I'm too pedantic / OCD-ish to deal with the colors being so off. If you're the sort of person that's bugged by that sort of thing, just bite the bullet and get the better bulbs. If you've still got old indansecents around, try them out in that fixture. If you feel like it restores sanity, then high CRI LEDs will too. I wish I could say, "They'll last you 10 years", but my experience with LEDs has been that I feel like they literally die as often as my old incandescents, but because I use so many lights in my home, I'm happy for the power savings.
- ycombinete 4y ago
  Thank you, I will do that. Do you have a preferred brand/model for the high cri. shopping for bulbs is nearly as annoying as shopping for pc monitors.
  - wheels 4y ago
    Depends on the format and your location. If you're in Europe, and mention the size of the bulbs then I sometimes have preferences. Unfortunately, some of my go-to bulbs here are no longer in production. (Honestly, I have the feeling that high CRI bulbs are getting harder to find.) I find high CRI bulbs hard enough to shop for that I've half-debated starting an online shop for them specifically.