CFL: Whitest and longest life?

[GarageBoy]

I want daylight white CFLs, who should I look into?

[2xTrinity]

I so far have been most satisfied with the N:Vision brand from Home Depot. They're the most compact for a given power rating, and have good color rendering -- they have the only 2700K lamp that's even tolerable IMO, and their 3500K is the best I've seen at that color temp (this is what I use, for the most part, at home). I haven't compared their 5000K batch (I use 5000K linear tubes, but not CFLs at the moment), but they're probably quite good. Most importantly, they're the only company I've seen sell the 3500/5000K lamps in value packs, $9 for 4, but not all stores have them in stock. I say check your Home Depots and see if any have the 4-packs of 5000K, if they do you'll save a lot of money compared to special-ordering anything.

[Norm]

Buy just one to try, daylight CFL's are too harsh for me to use at home, I have them in the garage where they are nice and bright.
Norm

[yuandrew]

I haven't compared their 5000K batch (I use 5000K linear tubes, but not CFLs at the moment), but they're probably quite good.

I bought one of their "Daylight" bulbs for a desk lamp in the warehouse area where I work, it's rated at 5500K and looks blue-white to me.

(The color of the "sunglasses" smilie actually looks very approximate to it)


At home, I have an older 20 watt Philips Earthlight dimmable which has a 2800K color temperature according to what lititure I could find. When hidden by a lampshade, it looks like a 65 watt incandescant in terms of color temperature.