Fluorescents are a bad way to light a woodshop

[Rick Potter]

7 years.......that's gotta be a record.

Rick Potter

[Joe Angrisani]

Easy on the new guy, everyone....Welcome to The Creek, Andy.

[Joe Jensen]

Just read the whole thread, good info. I just converted nine four tube T12 fixtures to T8. I used high efficiency Sylvania ballasts and the highest efficiency Sylvania T8 bulbs. I live in AZ and my garage is air conditioned but when over 108 or so the AC has trouble keeping up. I measured the power with an RMS meter at 1920 watts and the new setup is 670 watts. It did help with the heat too. That said, I had a mix of warm and cold bulbs in T12 and liked the light better than with the high efficiency T8s which I think are 4200K. I am loving the electronic ballasts. The list price was quite high but I scored a boxof 10 on ebay for $126 delivered.

Having said all that, I've learned that the best way to judge colors is to use the light that the piece will end up in. We just remodeled a bathroom and we are using halogen bulbs in that room. I did the color matching for the dye on the walnut to the limestone under halogen lights. Nice warm walnut. In the shop it looks cool and a little blue. Outdoors it's very neutral, not warm or cool. If I used daylight bulbs in the shop I'd have ended up with something way too warm in the bath.

Lastly, I have no data to back it up, but it seems to me that the color of light changes different materials slightly differently. The stone in the bath versus outdoors has less of a color shift than the walnut. I think this has to do with the chatoyance or depth in wood grain.

thoughts?...joe