The labeling may be of some use. There will be a Kelvin number. That is a K rating. If it is 2000 or 3000 I believe it is fairly cool. 5000 or 6000 is into the warm colors. Just as methemom suggested that is a good mix, so did a guy in Chicagoland who was in the lighting business. A warm white and a cool white mix doesn't involve a lot of thought.
CRI refers to Color Rendering Index as opposed to a crime drama. It is supposed to be a measure of how close to normal light it appears to us. The APD list bats these around here: http://fins.actwin.com/search.cgi
Also look to see how much light bulbs actually produce. That would be under lumens and it is surprising the differences sometimes. This is as important or more so than the above. Lumens can also converted to foot candles and other intensity measures, but it is still BC (before coffee) and I know that the kitchen is out there somewhere.
The larger fluorescents (4 foot bulbs) are more efficient than the small straight bulbs in our aquarium hoods.
There has been some to-do about the mercury in the new, highly toted compact fluorescents. Imagine my dismay in finding a site which suggests that the more conventional fluorescents have even more in the heavy metal line.
There are recycle places which will take them. I'm going to have to check out www.lamprecycle.com
later today or 1-866-666-6850.
And what's with all this 666666 stuff? ;)
We have just tossed them in the garbage, which means that the garbage trucks smash them and spread the mercury around where the kids play... Of course then there was the one which fell out of the socket and smashed on the aquarium below while I was changing it. So who's the boy genus breathing that stuff in?
What webs we weave!
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