After putting both the Philips soft white and the ecosmart daylight white bulbs in my kitchen fixture it's obvious by a country mile which bulb I like better: the ecosmart !
Of course I suppose this is to be expected, as I've always been a fan of daylight white bulbs. The ecosmart has a 5000K color temperature, fwiw, which is right in the daylight range. Now as I explained in last posting, color temperature is not the only criterion for true daylight color rendering. Color temperature is like an average grade. Suppose you had an average grade of B+, not so bad, right? But suppose that was because you got straight A's and then one D- in something important. Not so good. You'd need to have another number than the average, such as a minimum number, or a standard deviation, to suggest how good your average really was. In lighting, that's accomplished by the spectrum rating. I don't know how that is calculated, but I've read that about the best you can expect from even museum grade artificial lighting is D50. So to have daylight, you need something like 5000K color temperature and a spectrum rating of D50. Solux lights, used in museums and by picky designers, are right there.
Color television has alway specified 6500K for white, that's the slightly bluish daylight of mid morning or late afternoon (possibly when you get home and turn on your TV) and it's mostly adhered to in television production work, but user display is another matter, historically 1955-2000 TV's had color temperatures up to 9000K in order to appear the brightest on the showroom floor (color accuracy be damned, few could tell anyway as long as they also added fake red push to pinken the flesh tones) but nowadays, sets are getting better so typical is more like 7500K and often there are Movie settings and others which get you to 6500K or even 5000K. I hail the Imaging Science Foundation for promoting true color accuracy since the 1990's.
So how good is the ecosmart Daylight White for actual daylight white quality? As is very common in cool artificial lighting, it's somewhat bluish compared to actual sunlight. It's definitely not museum grade D50. But it's not so bluish that it bothers me much.
Meanwhile, the Phillips is just unacceptably yellow to my eyes, even at full brightness. You can see in the package that the Philips has a yellow plastic top. Writing on the box urges you not to worry about this, "When lit, this bulb produces a beautiful soft white light, similar to incandescent." To my eyes, it just gets brighter and therefore becomes a less saturated yellow, but the yellow remains. They may be right about the last part, though, incandescent bulbs are quite yellow when lit, even though they appear true white when unlit, and if you have nothing to compare them too, and are used to that sort of yellow lighting, that may be just what you want. But not me. I hope people get over this attraction to the yellow of incandescent lighting, or at least that I can continue to buy daylight white bulbs. I don't find that the yellow light makes me feel warm and cozy, I need good HVAC temperature control and good friends for that.
I've already mentioned how the ecosmart is rated for use in enclosed fixtures whereas the Philips is not, and Consumer Reports even advises not using it in "Partially Enclosed" fixtures, whatever that means, and I fear it may include the tulip glass pieces commonly used in light fixtures attached to fans like mine.
In addition, even when lit, the Philips has dark lines that run along the sides to cross at the very tip of the bulb, and the very tip is all dark too. How is that supposed to work for a ceiling fan fixture? Well, I suppose it's actually OK, by the time you get a few feet away everything is fairly evenly lit. In contrast, the ecosmart has fully bright sides, with only a partial dimming at the very tip, though it's a larger dim area. They both seem to light pretty well, but I think the ecosmart looks nicer and gives the appearance like it's lighting better, even if in truth they're about the same. The dark shape on a fully lit Philips bulb makes you think of some kind of cult or occult symbol.
When dimming the Philips, it flickers considerably, though at any particular dim setting it works fine. The ecosmart tracks the dimming changes with no noticeable hesitation. Also the ecosmart starts right up whereas the Philips hesitates, almost (but not quite as bad as) a fluorescent bulb.
The ecosmart has noticably thicker heatsinks on the side, though it lacks those occult like heatsink grooves that go to the tip. Of course I have no idea which bulb would last longer in my application(s), but if I hate the bulb from day one, and wish it would go bad so I justify getting another one, what good is that?
I can't understand why Consumer Reports gave the Philips such a high rating. It has obvious flaws, even if you like the yellow light. For me, I hate the yellow light too.
Of course I suppose this is to be expected, as I've always been a fan of daylight white bulbs. The ecosmart has a 5000K color temperature, fwiw, which is right in the daylight range. Now as I explained in last posting, color temperature is not the only criterion for true daylight color rendering. Color temperature is like an average grade. Suppose you had an average grade of B+, not so bad, right? But suppose that was because you got straight A's and then one D- in something important. Not so good. You'd need to have another number than the average, such as a minimum number, or a standard deviation, to suggest how good your average really was. In lighting, that's accomplished by the spectrum rating. I don't know how that is calculated, but I've read that about the best you can expect from even museum grade artificial lighting is D50. So to have daylight, you need something like 5000K color temperature and a spectrum rating of D50. Solux lights, used in museums and by picky designers, are right there.
Color television has alway specified 6500K for white, that's the slightly bluish daylight of mid morning or late afternoon (possibly when you get home and turn on your TV) and it's mostly adhered to in television production work, but user display is another matter, historically 1955-2000 TV's had color temperatures up to 9000K in order to appear the brightest on the showroom floor (color accuracy be damned, few could tell anyway as long as they also added fake red push to pinken the flesh tones) but nowadays, sets are getting better so typical is more like 7500K and often there are Movie settings and others which get you to 6500K or even 5000K. I hail the Imaging Science Foundation for promoting true color accuracy since the 1990's.
So how good is the ecosmart Daylight White for actual daylight white quality? As is very common in cool artificial lighting, it's somewhat bluish compared to actual sunlight. It's definitely not museum grade D50. But it's not so bluish that it bothers me much.
Meanwhile, the Phillips is just unacceptably yellow to my eyes, even at full brightness. You can see in the package that the Philips has a yellow plastic top. Writing on the box urges you not to worry about this, "When lit, this bulb produces a beautiful soft white light, similar to incandescent." To my eyes, it just gets brighter and therefore becomes a less saturated yellow, but the yellow remains. They may be right about the last part, though, incandescent bulbs are quite yellow when lit, even though they appear true white when unlit, and if you have nothing to compare them too, and are used to that sort of yellow lighting, that may be just what you want. But not me. I hope people get over this attraction to the yellow of incandescent lighting, or at least that I can continue to buy daylight white bulbs. I don't find that the yellow light makes me feel warm and cozy, I need good HVAC temperature control and good friends for that.
I've already mentioned how the ecosmart is rated for use in enclosed fixtures whereas the Philips is not, and Consumer Reports even advises not using it in "Partially Enclosed" fixtures, whatever that means, and I fear it may include the tulip glass pieces commonly used in light fixtures attached to fans like mine.
In addition, even when lit, the Philips has dark lines that run along the sides to cross at the very tip of the bulb, and the very tip is all dark too. How is that supposed to work for a ceiling fan fixture? Well, I suppose it's actually OK, by the time you get a few feet away everything is fairly evenly lit. In contrast, the ecosmart has fully bright sides, with only a partial dimming at the very tip, though it's a larger dim area. They both seem to light pretty well, but I think the ecosmart looks nicer and gives the appearance like it's lighting better, even if in truth they're about the same. The dark shape on a fully lit Philips bulb makes you think of some kind of cult or occult symbol.
When dimming the Philips, it flickers considerably, though at any particular dim setting it works fine. The ecosmart tracks the dimming changes with no noticeable hesitation. Also the ecosmart starts right up whereas the Philips hesitates, almost (but not quite as bad as) a fluorescent bulb.
The ecosmart has noticably thicker heatsinks on the side, though it lacks those occult like heatsink grooves that go to the tip. Of course I have no idea which bulb would last longer in my application(s), but if I hate the bulb from day one, and wish it would go bad so I justify getting another one, what good is that?
I can't understand why Consumer Reports gave the Philips such a high rating. It has obvious flaws, even if you like the yellow light. For me, I hate the yellow light too.
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