by Randall Whitehead, June 12, 2004

Admit it. Like most people, you have a fear of fluorescent lights: the moment an electrician, designer or architect mentions using fluorescent, your eyes glaze over and you slowly start backing away with your arms crossed over your face. This is not an unusual reaction. But you should know that over the past six years, huge improvements have been made in fluorescent technology.

Scourge of the Past
When we were growing up, fluorescent bulbs came in two colors: warm white (which gave off a murky pinkish-orange light) and cool white (which made people look greenish-gray). Now, there are many new fluorescent products that present people and living spaces in a much more flattering light. There are a huge number of new colors from which to choose, and many are highly complimentary to skin tones.

Energy Concerns
Compared to standard incandescent household bulbs, the advantages of fluoresecnts are tremendous. A standard bulb typically lasts 750 hours, but a fluorescent bulb lasts 10,000 to 22,000 hours. A 40-watt fluorescent bulb gives 3 to 5 times the amount of light of a 40 watt household bulb, which translates to significant energy savings. They produce less heat, which is a great in summer when air conditioners are cranked up to full blast. The bottom line is that fluorescents are a great long term value, even given their somewhat higher initial cost. An important factor for homes in California is the new Title 24 requirements, which went into effect on October 1, 2005. These are stricter than before and will seriously impact your future designs.

Changed View of Lighting
Since electricity was introduced, our homes have been illuminated primarily with incandescent sources. Most of us have therefore come to accept having our spaces filled with yellow light. Now, an awareness of the color-rendering abilities of different bulbs is making people think twice about the color of light in their homes and businesses.

Do you ever find yourself going over to a window or other source of daylight while shopping for a rug or a fabric in order to see its "real" colors? Think about it: after you have spent considerable time and energy choosing just the right colors, why would you put them in an environment filled with yellow light?

The New Fluorescents
Enter the new breed of fluorescent lights. Some bulbs can produce a glowing peach-like color that is good for skin tones and warm-hued woods. Others use rarer phosphors (called tri-phosphor lamps) in combination to produce even better skin tones and great color rendering. They come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes to replace existing incandescent bulbs.

One of the best things about fluorescent bulbs is that when you dim them, they don't change color like incandescent sources. Dimming of fluorescent lights has greatly improved over the past few years. Before, lights would hum (magnetic ballasts created all the noise) and flicker dramatically if you tried to dim them more than 80 percent, and you could only dim bulbs of the same lengths together.

Now you can get solid-state dimming ballasts that are totally silent, have full range dimming capabilities, and can control dissimilar bulb lengths together. Almost all fluorescent fixtures are dimmable if you include a dimming ballast and install a dimmer made specifically for fluorescents.

A Quick Fix
Some fluorescents, like the Phillips "Earth Light", are self-ballasted screw-in CLF's (compact fluorescent lamps) that are dimmable with a standard incandescent dimmer.

What about Quartz Lighting?
When tungsten-halogen (quartz) lighting sources were introduced, people were drawn to the whiteness of the light. They produce a less amber color temperature, thereby more accurately rendering the true color of objects or people within a given space. Still, quartz is an incandescent source. And, like standard incandescent bulbs, the more you dim them, the more jaundiced the light becomes, which further shifts the colors of the room: reds appear orange, blues appear green and whites appear to turn yellow.

Fluorescents in Your Future
Isn't now the time to reintroduce yourself to the kinder, gentler fluorescents?