Need advice for fluorescent light for my DIY project

[Admir]

Hi!

Im thinking of making some cheap and simple lightpanels with ordinary T5 bulbs. At the hardware shop I'm working at, we're selling Osram T5 bulbs, called Day white. This sounds good, but it's not the 950 dulux as it should be called for day light.

Can you use these light bulbs anyway, or are they to red even if it sais it should be day white? Anyone else here that have used cheaper bulbs other than the Dulux 950? Can you match the osram "day white" with the sun?

I belive that these bulbs that I'm asking about is like 830 dulux.

 

[Svart]

On the package they usually have their color temp in K printed somewhere. You will see 3000K, 3200K, 4100K, 5000K, 5500K or 6500K printed somewhere.

A yahoo search for dulux 950 shows that those are generally 5000k. A search for Dulux 830 shows they are 3000K.

Although I find that the cheap flos you can buy in hardware stores work very well compared to the expensive stuff, I typically don't like the quality of light from fluorescent lights.

Also, make sure you use an electronic ballast. Magnetic ballasts could allow you to capture mains flicker.

 

[Admir]

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I think that these are somewhere about 3000-4000k, allthough they're called "day white". That's the par that confuses me, since they claim to be white (blue) as daylight. So I just got an idea that this could really be a nice and cheap solution, if they work will say.