New fluorescents that are whiter and more efficient

[Catapult]

Where I work, I have always hated the output of those fluorescents. They can never make up their mind on what color they're trying to emit. Daylight is bluish green, and warm is pinkish. The office is mixed with both. Critical color production is important for the business. These tubes make it a nightmare for us, and calibration is always out the window. Whenever I need to look at color, or to take a break from cheap consumer fluorescents, I have to take a long hike to the light table (CVS), which is usually occupied by someone else. The dim, dreary lighting conditions sometimes give me headaches, especially since I often work late nights.

A number of months ago, the building crew started to replace all the T12 flourescent fixtures and tubes. Relief is on the way! These new fluorescents are very white, and are much brighter than the T12s they replaced. They almost seem to rival the expensive 5000K Graphite fluorescents from the light table, so lesser color projects can be done on my desk. Late nighters are also more managable due to the improved lighting conditions.

I could not find any information on these new fluorescents. I can't see the labels as they are covered, but they seem to have the thickness of T8s. One of the crew said these are more efficient. As for the costs, it is covered by building management, which comes from the high rents, so that's unknown.

Fluorescents with excellent color rendition and boasting even more efficiency looks very promising. I wanted to get my hands on some, but availability is probably limited to businesses or special applications since general vendors don't stock them. They have been around for a least a year now, so maybe some of us might be using them or know where they can be found?

[cmacclel]

If they are as thick as T8's then I think they would be T8's. T5's which are the latest high power flouresents are thinner.

T12's are 1.5" Diamter
T8's are 1" Diameter
T5's are 5/8 Diameter


Mac

[2xTrinity]

There are a couple key differences with T8s that make them greatly imrpoved over T12s:

1) they are run on electronic ballasts, with a much higher frequency input input, which result in both higher efficiency, and the absence of detectable flickering.

2) Tubes are generally multi-phosphor, rather than a single phosphor, so color rendition is greatly improved. I'm not sure what color temperature they're using at your place, but most of the stores and offices I know of have gone to 3500k, which is halfway in between the old warm and cool white T12s in terms of CCT.

3) Narrower tubes result in less reflector loss, as a smaller fraction of the light is reflected by the fixture into the tube itself, and lost. T5s are even better in this respect, and with big parabolic reflectors can actually be quite directional.

Oddly, I find I like 3500k, and 5000k blends, but not 4200k (color rendition on these is better for the T8s -- 78, intead of 60).