In , Mark Lloyd wrote:
On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:07:19 -0600, Robert Neville wrote:

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote:

Over the years, they've improved
them considerably and I now use CFL in most places in the house. The
color is far superior to what it used to be with that sickly green cast.

I agree - the 2700 degree CFLs (Sylvania mostly) are very good color
temps for interior use. They do OK for warmup time, but it still takes
30 seconds to come to full brightness.

Is that similar light to incandescent bulbs?
It'd rather have WHITE light than that yellow.

2700K CFLs mostly approximate incandescents of one sort or another,
though some 2700K CFLs (mostly older types and higher wattages) are a bit
pinkish in comparison to incandescents that they "best approximate".

For a whiter light, which I prefer, I like 3500K CFLs. 3500K is a
"whiter warm white", similar to higher color temp. halogen, projector,
and photoflood incandescents.

Both Lowes and Home Depot have a wide enough range of wattages of 3500K
spiral CFLs.

Please keep in mind that the whiter 3500K may have a bit of "dreary gray
effect" in dimmer home lighting situations such as dimmish basement and
hallway lighting.

For the next step to "truly white", that is 4100 K. My favorite source
of those is many hardware stores carrying the "Westpointe" line by the
"True Value" hardware store supplier.
Even though the color is like that of "average direct sunlight", it
easily gets "dreary grayish" unless illumination level is "nice-and-bright"
like that of offices, classrooms and more-brightly-illuminated retail
stores.

Even higher color temperature such as 5500K (Home Depot) or 6500K (Lowes
or Target) is good in dimmer situations when "dreary gray" but "adequate
but dimmish" illumination is OK, such as many places outdoors at night, or
"nightlighting" of hallways, stairways and basements. Such higher-K
icy-cold-slightly-bluish white has a spectrum favorable to making use of
"night vision".
--
- Don Klipstein )