Best Fluorescent Lamps for Painters?

[Adam McLaughlin]

Hey Guys,

What is the best Fluorescent lamps for those of you whom paint in your home garages and shops?

I was thinking that the 6500 K daylights may be best but the 3500 K Ecolights seem to be brighter ??

Let me know what you guys think,

Adam

 

[NUTTSGT]

When I worked at GE, we had a flourescent that was called Daylight. It was supposed to be as close to natural daylight as you could get at the time. I believe it was sold only as a single or twin pack and might be expensive.

 

[Fudge0514]

The flourescant tubes in size T8 (4' tubes) come in soft white, bright white, or daylight. I bought some daylight tubes for my garage (have 6 total) and love it. They are 6500k temp.

The price difference from the soft white/bright white is not much more. Go for it!

 

[Adam McLaughlin]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I bought some T12 ballasts and bulbs, got the 6500 K daylight editions too. Garage measures 20' x 30' and I have EIGHT 4' fixtures on the ceiling and two on the wall; I think that the two on the wall looking at the car would be very helpful when shooting clear. You can never have enough light when you are trying to paint something.

Adam

 

[NUTTSGT]

One thing I did forget to mention, they were T12 at the time. I'm sure they are doing them in T8s also, as the lamp plant here is making the switch to making T8s also.

 

[Adam McLaughlin]

Yeah I read that T12s are going the way of the Dodo bird, but since I did get the ballasts for free I won't complain. I just had to buy the bulbs and the wiring.

I have a feeling that the world will have plenty of T12s in it for a long time to come though.

Adam

 

[jvitez]

There are 3 things you need to consider:

1. Brightness.
2. Color of light the lamp (bulb) gives off.
3. How close can the lamp accurately reproduce colors?

1. Brightness is measured in lumens. You want lots of bulbs to make nice bright light. You need more light the older you are, especially after 40. There are lumen recommendations for industry, but really it's up to you.

2. Color temperature, measured in degrees Kelvin. Heat a filament, it gets hot, and starts to give off light. Red hot, white hot, blue hot. A candle gives yellow light, ~ 2000 deg K, or 2000 K. An incandesent lamp is ~2700 K, halogen incandescent ~3000 K. Our eye sees white as ~3000-3500 K. 5000K is already quite blue, 6500 K really blue.

3. Sunlight is 100% accurate at reproducing color, by definition. How close a lamp can get is measure in percentages, called colour rendering index or CRI. You want as close to 100% as you can get, but high color rendering fluorescent lamps cost much more than regular ones. Our eye sees anything over a CRI of 85 as high color rendering, thought for paint matching you should aim for over 90. The best are CRI 98 but $$.

For painting, I'd pick high CRI, 3500 K lamps, and put in lots. You WILL need more lumens as you get older. Sad but true.


How close a lamp is to sunlight is measured in percentages, with sunlight and the trusty incandescent lamp being 100%. It's also called CRI, or color rendering index.

For painting, y

 

[Falcon67]

I use 6500K bulbs in the shop. I have a white race car and it looks white in the shop. To me, anyway. There are 12 4' T8 fixtures in there.

Dark over the back of the car because the door is open.