Cool Warm or full spectrum bulbs

I picked up a 10pk of electronic ballast and ready to change over from T12 to T8 bulbs in my garage/work shop. The
other bulbs were a mixture of types, now I will have to buy new ones and the bulbs either say (warm,cool or bright full spectrum). I want a bright light, best bang for the buck, this is a 48x24' unheated building I use for hobby type work shop, mostly to work on junk. So which type would be best for me?

The terms 'cool white', 'full spectrum' and 'warm' are really ambiguous from a marketing standpoint, but if they are labels within the same brand they do have some relative context.

'Full spectrum' is likely your best blind bet then since it should have better CRI (color rendition index) than the standard 'cool white' although the actual color temp may vary. They should cost a bit more as well due to the additional phosphors.

Warm-white can range all over the place. Not a bad work light at all if around 3500k, but some warm fluorescents can be really warm and might put you to sleep.

"Cool white" or "warm white" are most likely the lowest color grade T8 tubes (probably about 76 to 78 CRI). While this is acceptable for some situations, if you need to distinguish between colors which are close, you might have some trouble. Go with the full spectrum. Usually these have a color temperature close to sunlight, plus a CRI over 90.

I bought these GE "Premium Cool White" and I'm quite happy. I'd call them neutral white though.
4100K, 86CRI, 2950 lumens. These are about a buck more per two pack than the regular version that have the same color temp, but are dimmer and have a CRI of 70-something. You don't really need full spectrum to "work on junk" as you say, so don't pay the premium for them. Be sure to buy a case of them for better pricing. The electronic ballasts should help with cold operation. They should work much better in cold then the T12s w/ magnetic ballasts.

Just got back from Lowes and was going to pickup full spectrum but noticed the same mfgs cool white had more lumen output for 32w bulbs and the full spectrum came in a 10pk, for alittle more I got a contractors 30pk of cool white. I installed one battast and one pr of bulbs, it looks good, I have alot more
to swap out today. I did notice there was a ton of cool white tubes to chose from but anly a small selection of full spectrum or warm tubes, anyway I couldn't
pass up a good deal on the 40pack.

Full spectrums have less output than cool whites because they produce a more regular spectrum which costs energy. Usually it's more orange-red.

I'm kinda fussy about this, and if you compared the two side by side the full spectrum light would appear 'crisper' and colors would stand out better. If you're used to cool whites then you likely won't care. It's usually when people move from full spectrum to standard cool-white bulbs that they notice something being off. Unless you are working on a very detailed stuff, and/or need good contrast rendition you'll survive

Quality control area in a plant I was recently doing some contract work in had several thousand square feet of full spectrum, very high CRI tubes adjacent to the rest of the plant using standard cool whites. The difference betwen work areas was like the 'Wizard of Oz' when the film switches to full color and it was amusing watching people migrate to the high CRI areas like cockroaches avoiding a flashlight.

N4aeq said:

...I got a contractors 30pk of cool white. I installed one ballast and one pr of bulbs, it looks good...

Click to expand...

IMO, you made the right choice. In a garage/shop a run-of-the-mill 'cool white' (typically 4100K, 70 or 80 CRI) is a decent choice. No, they are not the 'best' lamp, but I'd argue they are the best value...