Home lighting: What artificial light replicates sunlight best?

I have a work room at home that I spend a lot of time in. I'd like a really nice type of lighting in it. I'd prefer something warm and close to natural light as possible.

(I would perfer desktype lamps or similar as opposed to installation procuedures) Any thoughts?

One characteristic of natural light that may be getting overlooked is that
it is not always the same color. It changes as the day goes on, and with the season.
The more direct the sunlight is, the "bluer" it is.

What time of day are you trying to emulate? Why pick only one?

Do people like incans in the evening because they emulate the reddish natural
sunset colors or the colors of an open fire?

I just want whatever looks most natural

Nice bright warm liight.. Like the middle of the day... I'm just saying this as opposed to something like white flourescent light.

One way of determining the quality of light is the CRI (Color Rendering Index) which attemps to attach numbers to how the eye actually persives color...

The sun is a "black body radiator"--meaning that its light is generated by something glowing hot. CFL's, LED's and other lights tend to try and trick our eyes into seeing white bye mixing only a few particular wavelengths of light.

If you want something that best copies the sun--a tungsten filament is hard to beat. Halogen's can look whiter because the can be run hotter (have to watch out for UV radiation).

There are some other lamps that have high CRI numbers (89-100 is normally a "full spectrum" light source where the sun = 100).

Your best bet is to just look around at the different light sources. You may use CFL's for room lighting (to save energy) and use a 25-50 watt Halogen desk lamp to get better CRI and reduce eye strain.

Many people are pretty happy with Ott-Lights and other hi CRI florescents--but it is a pretty personal choice.

There are some metal halide high pressure arc type lamps that do a good job of mimicking sun light--go by a salt water aquarium store and look at their lights--but the ones I have seen would not be practical for desk or room lighting.

-Bill

try to choose some LED table lamp with warm white-color temperature: 3000K-4500k, I think that's what you need.

Jack

I'm moving this from the Cafe to Fixed Lighting.

Agree with BB, look for the color rendering index. Note that's for visible light.
(I'd stay away from the so-called "full spectrum" lights that intentionally emit some excess of ultraviolet unless you always wear glasses that would protect your eyes.)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778806000648
and even the blue photons, which pack much more energy than the rest of the visible spectrum, can add up over a lifetime
http://www.mdsupport.org/library/hazard.html