Seeing the light

[flick]

Thanks to all for the advice on my drop ceiling topic. I'm definitely going with one. The guy who is going to do the work for me (along with other "householdy" projects) spent an hour at the house last night going over what I'm looking for. He suggested using the kind of can lights that seem like "bug eyes," because they can swivel, making it easier to aim towards certain parts of the layout. Sounded good, so now I'm going to be researching those. (I had been researching fluorescents!) From what I've gathered so far, incandescents give off a lot of heat, and the light can be harsh. But I'm going to have all the lights on dimmers, so is that as big a problem? What would be my next choice? I read about full spectrum fluorescents--do they have full spectrum incandescents or halogen bulbs? It's not a huge area or number of lights, so I don't mind spending more for good bulbs.

As usual, any advice would be greatly appreciated. I promise to someday help other posters with their questions, once I learn enough to make my answers worthwhile! [:D]

Peter

[Anonymous]

Peter
I prefer fluorescents personally. They give off less heat and are more economical to use. Some modelers use both incandescent and fluorescent lights to balance color and intensity. If you want lights the simulate daylight, look at the color tempature rating of the lamp, measured in Kelvin (k) units. Lumens refers to the amount of light or brightness. Check out Grainger for daylight lamps. You have to choose the right size and type for your fixture.
You may be able to find the same lamps at a speciality lighting store near you.

[orsonroy]

There are four things wrong with flourescents, which you have to keep in mind before deciding which lighting type to use:
1) cost. You will have to invest in high quality bulbs AND fixtures (the ballast is the important part). Startup costs will be as much as ten times as much as incandescents. Good fixtures are in the $80-$200 range, and bulbs start at $40.

2) light quality. While they do produce a lot of light, it weakens significantly only a few feet away from the light source. In addition, you'll have to figure out how to eliminate the peculiar shadowing that flourescents produce.

3) noise. While it's not an issue to many people, some of us can actually hear and see flourescent lighting. It's enough to give me migrane headaches after only a couple of hours in a room lit only with flourescents (I've had incandescents installed in my office at work).

4) color distortion. Flourescent lighting, even if it IS adjusted to create "natural" lighting, screws with colors. What's bright green outside or under incandescents will wind up olive under flourescent lights. Blues get brighter, and reds do strange things. You'll either have to invest even MORE money for UV shields, or repaint anything that liooks strange.

Incandescent lighting isn't perfect. Heat buildup can be a problem, but can be regulated with more lower-wattage bulbs (two 40s instead of one 75). Shadows can be harder, but aimable spots can fix most shadowing (and real life is FULL of hard shadows). Running incandescents can also be costly, but only if you're planning on leaving 50 bulbs burning for 10 hours a day. OTOH, incandescents cost less, are easier to maintain, and give off a more realistic light for much less effort. You'll also not need to adjust for the color shift.

[Anonymous]

Where are getting ripped off for $40.00 for a flourscent tube? Wow! I found a bunch of the four tube four foot fixtures, all with good ballasts, at a garage sale. I got eight fixtures for $10.00. Bulbs (tubes) are reasonable at Home Depot or Loew's.

[gmpullman]

Keep track lights (no pun) in mind... they are very flexible and you can use spots to highlight a particular scene or floods to give a broader area and you can more easily position them than you can with the eyeball cans.
Some of the "trendier" halogen track lights are very small. They make clips that snap into the ceiling tracks and that makes installation easy.
I use a combination, 24 x 48 4 tube fluorescents for general lighting and doing layout work and the track lights for highlights and when "showing off" the layout.

[Pruitt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by orsonroy

...bulbs start at $40.

I get the 4' daylight fluorescents at Lowes for about $14 bucks apiece. Maybe you should change suppliers!

QUOTE: Originally posted by orsonroy

While they do produce a lot of light, it weakens significantly only a few feet away from the light source.

What, are you saying that the photons that come off a fluorescent somehow get tired after they move a few feet from the bulb? Hmmmm..... (just yanking your chain - not trying to offend!)

I'm installing the Simkar or Lithonia 2-bulb troffer fixtures with Sylvania daylight bulbs, and the color is very natural. Nor do I seem to be getting anemic photons out of the bulbs. I MAY replace the ballasts with a higher-quality ones in the future, but the stock fixtures and daylight bulbs are for now providing good illumination at a not-outrageous price.

As well as "temperature" of the bulb (rated in degrees Kelvin), you also need to look at the color index. A low color index will result in exactly what orsonroy said about colors looking funny even under a "daylight" bulb, while a higher index (in the 80s or better) provides a more natural spectrum and colors will not look funny. The Sylvania daylightbulbs are good both ways. Careful - some are not. The one's I buy are the ones in the blue sleeves. The one's I use are 5000K, with a color index of 90. VERY much like natural sunlight!

[Leon Silverman]

The response here have missed an opportunity have their cake and eat it. Many of the low wattage light bulbs on the market today are essentially little flourescent bulbs twisted into a standard light socket. The can't be used on a dimmer, but are available in 3-way (three different brightnesses). Using only ten to fifteen watts, they give off virtually no heat. I had a ceiling fan with a four light fixture in it. The four 60-watt bulbs totally negated the effect of running the ceiling fan. Replacing these bulbs with energy -saver bulbs eliminated all of the heat from thelight fixture.

[Seamonster]

They're called "compact flourescent light bulbs" (CFL) and come in wattages equivalent to 40 - 150 watt incandescents. They create almost no heat and use about 1/4 the power that an incandescent bulb does. The only drawback, besides that you can't use them on a dimmer, is that they're a bit bigger than an incandescent bulb and may not fit in all fixtures. I just got 3 of the 26 watt size (100 watt equivalent) to use in some clip-on lamps. To my eyes the light is closer to that of an incandescent bulb than the standard flourescent tube and they're every bit as bright as the old 100 watt incandescents. And, the manufacturer guarantees them to last 8,000 hours or 5 years, or they'll replace the bulb. They're a bit pricey, but you get that back in longevity and electricity savings. I plan to get more for the fixtures in the house and am seriously considering using them in reflectors for the layout. I'll have to look for that 3-way type. We've got a 3-way lamp that's on a lot and goes through bulbs. Maybe these are the next thing in layout lighting.