I trekked into the bowels of the local Home Depot store yesterday to check out lighting for my layout. After recovering from sticker shock at the prices of fixtures, I looked at the selection of 4’ tubes. Good grief, there’s almost as many choices there as at Baskins-Robbins! Here’s what I found:
Cool white, 60W, high output; 34W warm white; 32W natural; 32W daylight; 32W soft white; 32W cool white; Daylight Deluxe. And that was just the 4’ straight tubes and I’m sure I missed some. They had samples lit up for comparison and I found the “natural sunshine” yellowish, the “Daylight Deluxe” bluish, the cool white stark white and the soft white yellowish. Of course, the store was lit with flourescents so the colours may not have been true.
The clerk informed me that the T8 tubes were more energy efficient than the T12 tubes, and most of their stock were T8s. At 32 watts, they would be more efficient than what I consider the standard of 40 watts to be. And I would think their light output would be lower too. They also were thinner tubes.
What have all you helpful people out there found to be the best type (colour?) of flourescent lighting for a layout? It will take me a while to save all my pennies to buy all the lighting I need for my layout, but I want to be prepared when I do go shopping.
Color corrected tubes(5500 K) are available, but pricy. You can also find color correction gel wrappers for your existing tubes. Myself? - I just use standard ‘cool white’ tubes. Lots of ‘not corrected’ light sure beats hardly any light at all!
I spent a lot of time, like you, trying to figure out which way to go also. I finally settled on the GE “Kitchen & Bath” 4’ tubes, with an “IRC” of 82. Higher IRC ratings get closer to sunlight but I don’t like them. I really like the natural look they give to my layout and I personally think they are a lot, lot better than the cheap $1.00 tubes that are supposed to look like daylight.
Another issue I found was the quality of the flourescent fixtures. Those really inexpensive “shop lights” have a really cheap ballast and can cause the lights to “flutter”, maybe not very noticeable but enough to give people a headache. I had a buddy who used the cheap fixtures and I always got a headache at his house from the lighting. I bought fixtures that cost around $25.00 each at Lowes and they have a much better ballast.
So, first spend the money on better fixtures and then worry about the light tubes.
I should also tell you that flourescent tubes give off UV light which can cause scenery to fade and isn’t exactly good for people. I bought plastic sleeves at a lighting center for around $2.00 each. They simply slip over the flourescent tubes before you install them. Besides filtering out the UV light, they help to keep glass from flying all over the place if you ever drop one of the tubes.
Seamonster Bob, The right lighting can make a tremendous difference in the looks of your layout. At the moment I am using low wattage (4 to 9 watt) CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights - the screw in type) that are 2700K and have a CRI of 82 (a CRI of 85 or better is considered excellent color rendering). I am using those because I could get the lights at a dollar store nearby for $1 apiece. I will most likely go to 5100K dimmable at some point. To create an even distribution of light over the layout, I placed screwin type recepticles every 2 feet over the layout. An informative discussion of Color rendering and Kelvin Temps as they pertain to lighting can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature
Whatever you do, do not use “Shoplights”. As has been said they can produce headaches in some people due to the cheap ballasts they contain. Also, since T12 ballasts are not going to be made much longer (the bulbs are being phased out also) you would be best to get T8 ones now rather than having to change them in a few years. The 34 watt T8 bulbs have the same lumens as the 40 watt T12. They are more efficient and put out the same amount of light (Lumens). In the long run fluorescents will save you money even if they cost more initially. All the lighting in my home is now Fluorescent. BTW, while it is true that they emit some UV light, it is much less than sunlight and there are ways to filter it if you so choose. The levels that are emitted by CFLs would take several years of being on 24 hours a day to do any noticible fading of your scenery (and by that time you will probably want to change it anyway).
A company that has just about everything and anything for lighting and seems to be a good one to do business with is: http://www.1000bulbs.com/ They have excellent sales on bulbs and equipment.&nb
Bob, here is a photo of the lighting on my layout:
The fixtures and boxes for installing them cost less than $10 for a 4’ section of lights (2 fixtures per 4’). I offer that for comparison with the price of a single or double 4’ fluorescent fixture that will be way too bright for what you need.
I went to Wally World and bought a pack of each type they had. (most that you mentioned) I thought the plane old 25watt shop lights looked best and returned the rest. The others made the layout look too blue or green or pink or yellow.
In several discussions over the years, Chroma 50 bulbs have come highly recommended if you use flourescent bulbs. These have a 5000k color temp. Chroma 50 is the GE brand, but if you get anything with a 5000k color temp, it’s close to the same thing. Among those suggesting the Chroma 50 bulbs is Boone Morrison. Besides being a damn fine modeler, he’s also an architect and photographer, so he’s also speaking from some professional experience with lighting.
I installed these as replacements for my room lighting a few years ago. It really made a difference in rendering colors correctly. I’m very happy. They are slightly more expensive than cool white, etc, but can be found on sale or in bulk if you’re patient.
I’ve used the colour-balanced 4’ tubes, which give a nice light, but were rather expensive ($15.00 each) when I bought them, over 20 years ago. They were hard to start, and I usually left them on all of the time. That layout was fairly small, and I needed only four double fixtures to light the room. For my current around-the-room layout, in a room of about 560 square feet, I used 4’ Cool White tubes in double fixtures: 16 fixtures for the layout as it is, with another 8 or 9 to be added when the layout is partially double-decked. For my tastes, the light is a bit stark, and detail tends to disappear in the flat light. If I were to do this again, I’d have more fixtures, spaced closer together. And despite what the labels say, the 34 watt tubes do not put out the same lumens as the 40 watt ones. As far as I know, the cool whites make the most light (lumens) per watt. I tried Warm White, but found that they created a “dreary” mood due to the reduced light output. I’ve found that I’m used to the light and to me, the layout looks quite natural, although there are only very indistinct shadows cast by this type of light. Visitors to the layout haven’t commented on the lighting, so I have to assume that either it’s not annoying to them or that they are very polite.[swg] If you’re going to be photographing your layout under fluorescents (except colour-balanced tubes), you’ll need a suitable filter for a film camera. Most digital cameras can compensate for fluorescent lighting, though, and the pictures usually look quite nicely lit.
I use 2 standard 4’ fixtures over my layout with the GE Chroma 50 “Sunshine” bulbs. These create a more natural light than the standard flourescent tubes. Whites are white, yellows are yellow, blues are blue, etc. All the pics I’ve posted of my layout were taken under these lights with no filters, if that tells you anything. With the standard tubes I used to use I always had to ‘correct’ the pics because of a blue hue that would show up in the pics and the brightness always had to be dialed down by 10 points. With the sunshine bulbs the blue hue is gone and the pics come out looking more natural with no corrections needed.
I also use GE Kitchen & Bath. they are nice and clear. Sorta a blue tint but it is really more of a natural look that we are not used to because we normally see the regular bulbs that give off a slight hint of yellow. GE K&B is a real good choice
I got some Philips tubes at HD for about $7 or $8 a pair.
They were labelled daylight. They have a nice colour rendition. (They were T12 tubes.)
The price on the fixtures has come down a lot in the past year. I bought a pair of fixtures with electronic ballasts for the same money as the magnetic ballasts I bought last year.
Get the tubes recommended for the fixture. Pick the colour temp you like or want.
Thanks everyone for all your help and suggestions. The clerk who said the T8s were more efficient than the T12s didn’t tell me that they have the same light output as the old 40 watters. Nor did he mention that T12s are being phased out. I wonder if the only reason he stopped to ask if I needed help was that he thought I looked suspicious standing in front of the shelves madly scribbling notes. I do appreciate knowing about the T8s. I might have bought T12s without knowing because that’s what I’m used to seeing. Now I have enough information to make an informed decision when I go to buy the lights.
