I remember reading somewhere that Fluorescent lights can damage layouts over time–I’m not sure if it was UV light or what, but there is a certain type of light to use or a plastic shield that negates this harmful effect. Anyone know what I need? No one at Home Depot did…
Gary
Hi Gary,
The UV light is supposed to fade the scenery color over time, at least that’s what I’ve read in the past. The clear plastic tube sleeves are sold as a safety item in case a fluorescent tube gets broken to keep the pieces contained within the sleeve. I haven’t checked out our new Home Depot yet but I’ve seen them on sale at Menards.
I have also read that just using clear type wrap, like Saran Wrap, et al, wrapped around each tube will do the same thing.
If you can find fluorescent tubes labeled as “daylight” color they might not be as hard on the scenery as regular fluorescent lights. The biggest drawback to fluorescent lighting is the color shift when you try to take pictures of the layout, especially with a digital camera that doesn’t have color correction circuitry. I have an older Epson digital camera without color correction adjustments, and everything tends to turn green under fluorescent lighting.
I can tell you that fluorescent lighting has done damage to the colors on some of the train pictures I have on the wall, as well as on book dust jackets, so I assume it can do the same to scenery colors.
Dave Nelson
Light, any light, will cause colors to fade. Fluorescents are easy on scenery compaired to sunlight. Those clear plastic saftey covers do help and they turn dark after a while. A crackeled plastic cover made for fluorescents work even better and disfuse the light too. The best thing is to turn out the lights when not in use to save scenery, coal, and the atmosphere. Also keeping it cool in the layout room helps with fading and general deterioration. Keep it dry too. So in a dark cool finished basement appears to be the best place for your layout afterall, just don’t tell the wife or she will want you to move it. FRED
I have used Fluorescent Daylight Tubes over my layout for the last 10 years, and no fading has taken place that I can tell. Also these are very good for photography.
Rob
I have used GE’s Daylight (labeled for Kitchen and Baths) for a little over a year and no damage thus far. Probably a bit soon to see any damage anyway, but I do agree that direct sunlight will cause more damage more quickly. Overall, I’m not too concerned about florescent bulbs. They project light better, throw far less heat, and use less power.
Has anyone tried GE’s “Sunlight” balanced bulbs? I initially considered them, but they were too pricey, so I went with the daylight bulbs instead.
Phillips makes its own line of florescent bulbs, and I purchased their version of daylight bulbs for my kitchen. After a few months, I changed them out because they were just too blue-toned. I went with the GE Daylights and what a difference!
Also, has anyone else noticed how Home Depot now only sells Phillips light bulbs? They seem to have done away with GE altogether.
I mix cool white and shop lights and it looks OK to me? The daylights were blue to me. I also had some flora-glo bulbs and they were orange and it looked like it was late evening. As to GE, I quit buying their bulbs (both kind) about a year ago. They just seem not to last very long anymore. At home we were using 4 lightbulbs a week just in replacements. We switched to Phillips and they last lots longer. I was buying GE tubes for the store and same problem, I’ve been buying Value Bright at True Value and they shine a long times. Maybe they are making them too cheap? FRED
I was told by a friend that has experience with industial fluorescent lighting, that it’s the repeted turning on and off, rather than the sheer number of hours that burns out bulbs prematurely.
Thanks to everyone–I’ll look for daylight tubes and possibly plastic shields the next time I’m at Menards.
Gary
Hs anyone tried the three bulb lighting system I read about several years ago. Seem like you used a red, blue, and a white bulb in groups of three with dimmer switches. If you have tried this I would like your opinion on this. I’m not happy with florescent tubes over my layout.