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Comment by latch | Hacker News Reader

Am I the only one who prefers the cool white/blue of CFLs?

I prefer white light over soft yellow light :)

I read something a while ago about different cultures, and their preferences for different kinds of light. I believe North Americans tend to like the soft yellow, while many Asian cultures are more comfortable with crisp white. Although, I grew up here, so I'm not sure where my preference comes from.

American (USA) here, much prefer the white lights. White seems to be easier to read under than the yellow.

I prefer soft yellow in most of the house and crisp white in the bathrooms and office. In bathrooms it allows you to see everything clearly (a good thing?) and in the office I find it keeps me alert.

My thoughts exactly. It depends on the room; yellow in living/dining, and white in bathroom/office.

I have a white CFL desklamp in my home office, and by a chair in the corner I have a yellow corner lamp (admittedly incandescent not LED).

I prefer to do casual reading/relaxing under yellow light ("mood lighting"), and work/bathroom under white light.

This may seem like a binary issue, but really it comes down to setting and personal preference for the light used therein.

"Find out what you want, and then learn to ask the right questions." - Tony Shalhoub, psychiatrist in 'How Do You Know' (random but memorable quote from the Paul Rudd romcom I relented to watch with my wife recently)

I prefer a light suited to the task.

Fluorescent are great in work/task areas (garage, kitchen and bath).

However, my wife hates CFLs. They are so dim. At least the first generation were. They were no were near as bright as their wattage claimed (as measured by our eyes anyway).

That's why we have regular fluorescent in garage, kitchen, etc.

Dim? The first CFLs I bought were blindingly bright. The one in my bedroom now is too dim.

I don't know if this is a consistency issue or if I just haven't paid attention to the ratings, but to say "they're too dim" overall is, I think, oversimplifying.

As a photographer, I find incandescent easier to white-balance than CFL, although there are other photogs who swear by florescent.

As I recall, the fluorescents I like best usually have color temperatures in the 4000K - 5500K range. Anything below 4000 is too yellow. The 6500K bulbs I don't like as much, though this may have more to do with their low CRI than the color temperature.

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