Just this week we’ve made some changes in our lighting.
Our old setup featured a combination of 65 watt and 42 watt CFL bulbs. While these did the job for years, these new 4′ LED fixtures provide almost double the lumens over the CFL bulbs with only 38 watts per fixture! Additionally, the design of a 4′ rectangle naturally provides a greater “range” than the compact bulbs.
This room received the 12,000 lumen upgrade (now sitting at 36,000 lumens total), as well as a shift to the more natural 5000K light.
In the above photo you can see a great comparison between our old bulbs and the new fixtures. These bulbs are around 2700K (a more yellow hue), while the fixtures are 5000K (a “natural white” hue). These are great for ensuring any work you are doing is taking place in a neutral light. We also had some CFL bulbs that were 5500K- these appeared a little too blue in their hue. It appears that 5000K is the sweet spot when going for the most true to life, natural light.
We really have an upgrade in our replacements for the old mercury vapor bulbs that can be found on “street lamp” style lights (note the one in the upper left corner of the above image. These new “corn cob” style LED bulbs are a replacement for mogul base type fixtures. As a bonus, these bulbs do not require a ballast or igniter- they will, however, work with an eye that is used to power on at dusk and off at dawn. These corn cob bulbs really bring in the savings by replacing the mercury vapor bulbs that used anywhere from 175 watt to 250 watt with LED bulbs that only use 45 watts!
Overall, we’re very pleased with our new lights and can’t wait to add more!