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Even the top-of-the-line CREE bulbs are only suitable for people who are color blind or habitually not paying attention. I once did an ill-considered change fr

Even the top-of-the-line CREE bulbs are only suitable for people who are color blind or habitually not paying attention. I once did an ill-considered change from halogen to LED bulbs in my kitchen, and having done so could no longer see the colors on my dishware. That was ridiculous. I went back to the halogens. My house is in a year-round heating climate anyway so I don't really worry about the waste heat from them.

justin66 14y ago
I wonder if you've actually used one of the newest Cree bulbs? I'm not color blind and I found the color of one of their 2700k bulbs to be better than the CFLs I use in a few places. Come to think of it, they're a fair bit better than the g7power LEDs as well. This is why I'm wondering if the CRI is really a magical "light goodness" benchmark number or what. Some people certainly seem to be treating it that way.
- thrownaway2424 14y ago
  They were the best ones I could get my hands on. I believe their advertised CRI is 90. If you look at the spectrum though, they are still quite peaky/notchy. Halogens are very close to sunlight. Halogens with clear bulbs have CRI 100 by definition. Yes, the latest LEDs are far superior to CFL. And oatmeal tastes better than dog shit.
  - msutherl 14y ago
    Another thing to consider is that radiation outside of the visible light spectrum may have positive effects. For instance, halogens radiate a lot of infrared radiation, which is used in various therapies and is a big part of why being out in the sun feels so good.
- kyzyl 14y ago
  cri doesnt mean too much absolutely, but it's the metric the standards associations chose to compare lights. after working with medical lighting for a while I've found myself paying more attention to the combination of cri and cct and/or cri and luminous flux. what people need to realize is that lots of other factors come into play such as ambient color mismatch and bleeding of adjacent colors. in some conditions even high cri lights don't appear to show color very well.
EEGuy 14y ago
Chandeliers with prismatic glass are another problem area for LED lighting. My home has two such fixtures, previously populated with nine 40-Watt incandescent lamps each. That's a lot of power dissipation (360 Watts), particularly since one of the fixtures was on up to 12 hours per day (4KW-h almost daily for that). So I replaced all nine bulbs with TCP LDCT3WH30KCC 3-Watt (15 W incandescent luminance equivalent) 3000-K 80-CRI bulbs. 27 Watts, down from 360. Excellent energy savings, excellent dimmability (better than the incandescents), but all those beautiful violet, green, blue, gold and other various facets of color from the prismatic glass were just gone -- collapsed down to a cold white; as if the glass weren't prismatic anymore. I do not understand why I don't see at least some narrow-band stripes of some few individual colors. So I put back just two 40-watt incandescent bulbs. That was enough to bring back a nice refractive color spread from the prismatic glass. The dissipation is up to 91 Watts from 27 Watts, but it's beautiful again. Energy problem resolved satisfaction (75% reduction), while keeping the aesthetics alive too.
- justin66 14y ago
  That's pretty interesting. I bet it has something to do with the polarization of light. If so a bulb like the Cree (with its glass casing) might help, although it might look goofy in that particular fixture.
  - ars 14y ago
    I doubt it's the polarization. More likely it's that the incandescents are point, or line sources (non-frosted bulbs), but the LED's are much wider - so you are still getting colors, but since you have multiple color in multiple spots they overlap, mix, and are back to being white again. Try to get LEDs that have no diffuser lens in front, since the LED itself is a point source.

justin66 14y ago

I wonder if you've actually used one of the newest Cree bulbs? I'm not color blind and I found the color of one of their 2700k bulbs to be better than the CFLs I use in a few places. Come to think of it, they're a fair bit better than the g7power LEDs as well. This is why I'm wondering if the CRI is really a magical "light goodness" benchmark number or what. Some people certainly seem to be treating it that way.

thrownaway2424 14y ago
They were the best ones I could get my hands on. I believe their advertised CRI is 90. If you look at the spectrum though, they are still quite peaky/notchy. Halogens are very close to sunlight. Halogens with clear bulbs have CRI 100 by definition. Yes, the latest LEDs are far superior to CFL. And oatmeal tastes better than dog shit.
- msutherl 14y ago
  Another thing to consider is that radiation outside of the visible light spectrum may have positive effects. For instance, halogens radiate a lot of infrared radiation, which is used in various therapies and is a big part of why being out in the sun feels so good.
kyzyl 14y ago
cri doesnt mean too much absolutely, but it's the metric the standards associations chose to compare lights. after working with medical lighting for a while I've found myself paying more attention to the combination of cri and cct and/or cri and luminous flux. what people need to realize is that lots of other factors come into play such as ambient color mismatch and bleeding of adjacent colors. in some conditions even high cri lights don't appear to show color very well.

EEGuy 14y ago

Chandeliers with prismatic glass are another problem area for LED lighting. My home has two such fixtures, previously populated with nine 40-Watt incandescent lamps each. That's a lot of power dissipation (360 Watts), particularly since one of the fixtures was on up to 12 hours per day (4KW-h almost daily for that). So I replaced all nine bulbs with TCP LDCT3WH30KCC 3-Watt (15 W incandescent luminance equivalent) 3000-K 80-CRI bulbs. 27 Watts, down from 360. Excellent energy savings, excellent dimmability (better than the incandescents), but all those beautiful violet, green, blue, gold and other various facets of color from the prismatic glass were just gone -- collapsed down to a cold white; as if the glass weren't prismatic anymore. I do not understand why I don't see at least some narrow-band stripes of some few individual colors. So I put back just two 40-watt incandescent bulbs. That was enough to bring back a nice refractive color spread from the prismatic glass. The dissipation is up to 91 Watts from 27 Watts, but it's beautiful again. Energy problem resolved satisfaction (75% reduction), while keeping the aesthetics alive too.

justin66 14y ago
That's pretty interesting. I bet it has something to do with the polarization of light. If so a bulb like the Cree (with its glass casing) might help, although it might look goofy in that particular fixture.
- ars 14y ago
  I doubt it's the polarization. More likely it's that the incandescents are point, or line sources (non-frosted bulbs), but the LED's are much wider - so you are still getting colors, but since you have multiple color in multiple spots they overlap, mix, and are back to being white again. Try to get LEDs that have no diffuser lens in front, since the LED itself is a point source.