Shop Light (lamps) Question

[Boyd Gathwright]

SHOP LIGHT (LAMPS) QUESTION

.... I have a whole box of shop lamps, GE F40T 12/CINEMA/55, and I would like to use them as shop lights and perhaps elsewhere. My concern is the “CINEMA” part of this lamp. When I first saw this I was concerned about what effect it might have on the eyes. So, I called GE and their sales people weren't, as sales people, of much help. In a situation like this, you can never talk to an engineer or someone who had something to do with the development of this kind of lamp. After talking to GE I got the impression that this is just a whiter light than usual, that's used on stage and as far as I can tell from talking to these people there's nothing harmful about these lamps. Does anyone have any knowledge or some experience with this type of bulb?


PS These lamps give a nice white light without the yellowing effect.


Thanks

.

[Rennie Heuer]

Hi Boyd,
If the "55" refers to the kelvin temp of the lamp then that puts it very close to noon day sun - which is a great thing to have in the shop - much better than standard cool-white.
I have all "daylight" lamps in mine and I love them.

[Boyd Gathwright]

.... Hi Rennie,
.... Thanks for getting back to me with the information and my apologizes for taking so long getting back to you. I was at the hospital most of the day yesterday, I had some tests they wanted to run.
.... Here, I was concerned about the safety aspects of these bulbs but after reading you are using very similar ones throughout your shop makes me sorry I don't have them in the 8 Foot length along with the 4 footers for the rest of the shop. These are nice “WHITE” light bulbs. Most likely they are more costly than the dingy “YELLOW” bulbs.

Thank again

Boyd

Hi Boyd,
If the "55" refers to the kelvin temp of the lamp then that puts it very close to noon day sun - which is a great thing to have in the shop - much better than standard cool-white.
I have all "daylight" lamps in mine and I love them.

[Rennie Heuer]

.... These are nice “WHITE” light bulbs. Most likely they are more costly than the dingy “YELLOW” bulbs.
Boyd

Boyd,

The daylight lamps not only give better color rendition, they have been shown to improve mood and give a feeling of 'well being' when compared to the cool whites. I not only have them in my shop but both my work and home office as well. My wife suffers from SADD so this is something we looked into. As far as I am concerned it works - The long dark winters never enter my shop! There it is high noon, mid summer, all year.

[John Renzetti]

hi Boyd, I'll second the opinion on the daylight bulbs. I have a bunch of what was called Ultralume's in the shop and they provide very bright white light. I believe I made a mistake in getting the 8ft lengths and not just ganging the 4ft fixtures. So having all those 4ft ones is better in my opinion.
take care,
John

[larry merlau]

i have the high output floresence ones and they are great for cool climate's but from what i am hearing form you folks i should be gettin differnt bulbs for better color rendition, i have noticed that what it loks lik ein the shop is differnt than outside. so a question to those who know, can i replace my presnt bulbs with a differnt whiter one? where does the kelvin rating show up on them so i can look at the present ones to see what i have?

[Andy Fox]

Boyd,

I think I found the GE product literature on the lights you have:
http://www.gelighting.com/na/busines...luorescent.pdf

They're 5500 degrees K in color temperature, which is about what sunlight is at noon. Best of all the CRI is 95 (sunlight is best at a CRI of 100). The CRI is how accurately they render colors. I have lights in my shop with a CRI of 86, and they're not bad, so the lights you have should be great!

Andy

[Boyd Gathwright]

Thanks again Andy, You led me to GE's pdf file for my product code, which is 47864 . Gosh knows what these things sell for, not to mention the 8 footers ?


http://www.gelighting.com/na/busines...and_studio.pdf

.... If you had trouble reading this link, here is the page. click on the image for enlargement.

Stage & Studio (a3) Prod Code 47864.jpg

.

Boyd,

I think I found the GE product literature on the lights you have:
http://www.gelighting.com/na/busines...luorescent.pdf

They're 5500 degrees K in color temperature, which is about what sunlight is at noon. Best of all the CRI is 95 (sunlight is best at a CRI of 100). The CRI is how accurately they render colors. I have lights in my shop with a CRI of 86, and they're not bad, so the lights you have should be great!

Andy