Introducing the Light Bulb Database!

[biggirlkisss]

Here’s the spectrometer I am using.

That’s a good question! I recall seeing some posts on here about 130V bulbs burning redder or something to that effect. Maybe I’ll find some more to test.

130 volt have a thicker filment which makes the bulb run cooler giving more orange to red. I have not ever been able to find a spec sheet to compare 120 volt to 130 volt.

 

[AspiringSage]

That’s a good question, yes I am from the US, I haven’t tested any of these lights on a 220/240V AC supply.

My guess is that the lights that have a very obvious 120hz waveform would simply adapt to a 240hz waveform (which is definitely better) and any lights that have higher frequency modulation patterns would retain that quality.

230v in Australia is a distinct system vs American 240v. Most international 230v/50hz is delivered as a single phase whereas American 240v/60hz is delivered as two legs. Which are sort of quisi phases (120 degrees out of phase) from a center tapped transformer. The voltage of each leg is 120v to neutral, but 240v between legs because they are opposed in effective phase angle. The term Edison split system or Edison split circuit might be useful for researching this system.

In theory, the Edison split system was safer because someone touching an exposed plug blade is likely to only touch a single leg. So, most people claiming to have been shocked by 240v in the US likely only got tagged by a single leg of 120v. In practice, it really makes little safety difference given modern arc fault/ground fault breakers used in recent construction; but, I digress.

So, American residential 240v generally has two opposed angle 60hz cycles (effectively the powered device sort of sees 120hz) whereas a device powered on Australian 230v sees a single 50hz wave form. The point I am obtusely driving at is that is that I would expect to see a base (for lack of a better term) 50hz/100hz flicker rate in devices powered with Australian residential current. There isn’t a second leg to add an inverse wave form. And a 120hz/240hz flicker rate on the light output side of some American 240v devices. Where there is a second opposed wave form to add flicker.

I think it’s gonna get a lot more complex than that in practice, though. Incandescents, LEDs, high frequency switching florescent ballast, magnetic florescent ballasts, etc and various wiring schemes are all going to have different flicker outputs that are some derivative of the base supply hz. Would be interested to see observed results from various luminaries. But be careful attempting to wire up international 230v devices on Edison split American 240v circuits. Some will play nice, some won’t.

Incidentally, there are specialized hardwired transformers to produce true 230v to neutral current from American 120/240 split circuits. I installed one years ago for a client who wanted to use a few european appliances in his kitchen. Also had to use American spec outlets (NEMA 6-20R) that carried a 250v rating with 6-20P to IEC-320 device cords.

 

[biggirlkisss]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0n_oBgmB2A

If you get a 240 volt halogen on a 120 volt that 500 watt is with a power meter takes less voltage cant remember exactly but half or more. Looks quite red.

 

[biggirlkisss]

CRI-MAX - Yuji Lighting you should check these bulbs

 

[brightside]

CRI-MAX - Yuji Lighting you should check these bulbs

Surprised he didn’t have them on the list. They’re excellent, and have cool products too, like the sky panels.

Also, waveform lighting has some 98+ CRI products

 

[itchaboyagain]

CRI-MAX - Yuji Lighting you should check these bulbs

I’m hoping to get my hands on those as well as their new sun wave bulbs, only issue is their cost. Right now I just can’t afford them.

Gonna try to convince them to send me some samples!

We’ll see!

 

[amd]

Philips bulbs are not as bright as other brands, they seem better engineered with more glass, less plastic, less watts for the same stated lumens, they just don't look as bright.

 

[Borz]

any opinion on sunlightinside.com lamps?

 

[Jared]

The flicker from a tungsten filament bulb is quite large until 72w where it disappears completely. You can see the flicker waveforms from various attaches in the database. They are in the high risk range according to the IEEE std, and many LEDs perform better.

Sure some LEDs have high frequency flicker, but many do not, such as some waveform bulbs and a few others.

However as I said, once you hit the 72w threshold (seen with a halogen) the flicker is indeed fantastic and completely gone.

I’d love to test some other odd lights like that, they’re quite impractical for most people however.

I just used the slow motion camera trick to check the flicker on a 72w halogen and it flickers just as much as anything else I've tested.

 

[Jared]

My name is Derek and I'm a light bulb addict. Looks around the room nervously.

I've spent the last few months testing dozens upon dozens of lights to create a massive online database for health weirdos like us.

​

What is This?​

The thing is, light is extremely important, but when you go to BUY lights, what does the box say? The color temperature and wattage, that's about it.

It's like if you went to buy food and it only had the macros and no ingredients listed, what gives?

Hopefully, this database will grow with time and no one will have to guess what their lights are "made out of".

So far, I've compiled a list of 93 lights (which will continue to grow), some of the very best on the market, for you to sort through.

This includes metrics on:
- CRI and TM-30 (Rf and Rg)
- SPDs (the actual spectral color graph)
- Flicker risk, index, and waveform graphs
- ASD (a measurement of how "realistic" a light is)
- Circadian Light (a relative measurement of how much potential a light has for entraining the circadian rhythm)

There's a section explaining these things more in-depth if you need help interpreting the database.

So this is version 1 and I think it's finally ready to share! It's definitely easier to navigate on a desktop, but it will still work on mobile.

Explore the database here!

​

Some of the Findings!​

I've found some interesting and cool things I'd like to share here as well:

I'd always heard that LEDs were capable of achieving less flicker than incandescents, which is true.

What I found though, was that halogens/incandescents over 72w don't flicker at all.

Apparently, the AC current is no longer capable of influencing the brightness levels of the tungsten filament.

View attachment 48667

Some of you may have heard of Sylvania Natural bulbs, they claim to utilize "TruWave" technology.

View attachment 48665

TruWave is supposed to get rid of the turquoise dip and blue spike found in normal blue LED-based phosphor bulbs.

Well, their 8 and 11w bulbs are just normal blue LED phosphor pump bulbs so they're straight up lying to consumers about those.

Here's what the 8 and 11w "TruWave" LEDs from Sylvania look like...

View attachment 48662

TruWave? More like LIEWAVE! Sheesh.

Anyways, the 15w actually does have the advertised spectrum, so that's cool.

View attachment 48663

As you can see the large blue spike and turquoise dip are greatly diminished.

Probably the most interesting lights I tested were the new Ultra Definition bulbs by Philips.

They're quite nice-looking bulbs with an average CRI of around 95, and the spectral graphs aren't bad either:

View attachment 48664

There is no large blue spike or turquoise dip!

While there is a large red spike, I'll take this over a blue spike any day, and since it helps round out the red output, skin tones will look better under this light than most others.

Well, I think that's enough for this post!

I go over a lot of this stuff in a lot more depth in my article on Best Full Spectrum Lights if you want to read more!

I can't open up any of your links. I've tried several different browsers.