They've improved the phosphor blend on the newer lamps so the 5K's aren't nearly as offensive as they were in the beginning but then again I tend towards Sylvania Octron bulbs rather than Phillips or any of the off brands. They won't settle for anything else in the offices and some other areas where color rendition is semi-critical but I'm quite happy as you are with the warmer whites upstairs in my 4,000 ft*sq office and work area, they just don't seem to strain these old eyes as much. They cost a bit more now than the 5Ks but I buy in volume and it's my call.I use 3000k compact fluorescent light bulbs in my home. They appear pure white, not pink like warm white and not blue like cool white.
But I can't buy them anymore so I selected 3500k which has a trace of blue colour.
You would think that the higher is the temperarture then the better is the pure white colour but no, it is the amount of blue colour (like blue sky?).
Not talking about back wired duplex outlets, even on a branched 15A circuit I still use the old bend the wire exactly around the screw terminal method and a couple of wraps of tape around the entire outlet.Push-in connections on electrical receptacles are intermittent at best. I think they cause sparks or a fire that welds the wires together and extingueshes the fire.
CFLs are different than T-8 lamps, doesn't seem to be the same attention to detail or phosphor accuracy. I use a very few of them in certain places but I'm quite excited about these new 105W ones that run directly off of 277V, I think they're made by TCL and are relatively new to the market. There were a lot of attempts to replace the older 400W MH lamps and still use the ballasts in the fixtures but they cost a fortune, weren't all that reliable and you still had that ballast in the circuit wasting all the power. If the ratings can be believed I can get three years out of them when I could get 4 or 5 out of the HIDs but they're not much more expensive than the HIDs and I don't have to deal with ballast failures at 26' up in the air.I also use only Osram-Sylvania compact fluorescent light bulbs.
by Duane Benson
by Duane Benson
by Jake Hertz