I’m interested in replacing some home lighting and would like to go for a high CRI, quality light output solution.
In fact my first thing I want to upgrade is in my workshop, it currently has some 12v strip LEDs above the work area and general lighting by fluorescent tube. Can you get high CRI strips?
In the house I have a variety of lighting, mainly g10 type but I don’t know where to start now I realise the benefits of higher quality light.
Any advice appreciated
They do some really good led battens now, fitted some a little while back, 5ft led ones to replace fluorescent ones, amazing, it’s like having summer daylight inside , not cheap though, compared to fluorescent battens , think they were around £45 each, I’ll have to look up which ones they were.
For the workshop I’ve started changing the 5 ft fluorescent tubes to led tubes, you replace the fluorescent tube with the led tube, remove the starter and put a supplied fuse in its place, not quite as good as the complete led battens I mentioned above, but a very good light for working with, plus they are only about £8.50 each and only take seconds to install.
Available from any good electrical trade counter in the UK
> I don’t know where to start now I realise the benefits of higher quality light.
I wanted LED lighting in my home, so I bought Phillips Hue. When I realized it was using PWM, I went back to incandescent and never looked back. LEDs use less electricity, but they also have less CRI, and it seems a LOT of the home LED products use PWM. Soooo… Im going to say Incandescent is Better than LED, for me.
Have a look over here, they are not cheap (and neither is their shipping) but they produce and sell really good high CRI stuff.
The remote phosfor e27 bulb, and GU10 spot I have from them have worked fine for over a year now, do not show any sign of PWM, and produce great light.
So 5 meters of high CRI strips will cost 99 dollars? Thank you for the link, but is that the only option on the market?
I was going to change our kitchen/cabinet lights which are now 20+ years old and mostly faulty. But 100 bucks plus shipping seems a tad high. However, I also won’t trust 5m/for 4 bucks on aliexpress as youtube showed me how they look.
If you need E27 or B22: Digoo Lark Serie Dimmbar LED E27 B22 12 Watt Hohe PF Top Qualität Globus Glühbirne AC220-240V Sale - Banggood Deutschland
I have the “normal” Version in 12W and the High CRI Version - the High CRI ist really noticeably better - even though the other one isn’t bad at all.
BG has a lot Digoo products and all I have so far aren’t bad at all.
DIY Perks did a video a while ago with some high CRI led strips which he turned into panels. He has the links to the products on the description.
edit: I remembered it being high CRI but now it doesn’t state it anywhere…
Some useful links but it seems the real high CRI stuff is still silly expensive 
I like the lamp build in that video, very nice, why aren’t the Chinese resellers supplying units like these at budget prices already tho?
A model like that from the video is probably way too heavy, big and difficult to ship anywhere (unless local). But a smaller plastic / alloy model might be feasible. Kind of a less rigid led bar for indoor use.
The entire home LED issue appears complex, indeed. the affordable solutions rarely mention any CRI, or give a range (55-80). The light temperature I “see” on various youtube videos is not necessarily what I would expect from the item descriptions either; unclear whether this depends on screen, youtube compression, or the equipment used to make these videos.
Maybe I should just buy a reel of Cree’s and build my own solution. At least then I know how they will turn out and can even pick the right tint.
[quote=MILSPEC]
or a roll of Nichia 219? 
To b or to c, that is the question… you also need to specify what the “right” color temperature(s) are for your application(s).
I wouldn’t know that! What is the right tint/CRI for kitchen counters, garages, a white basement room or a living room? And how would dimming or a different driver change any of the emitter characteristics? (Given the fact that most “cheap” LED strip drivers on the regular shops have unknown internals anyway)
I would have to educate myself further about the recommended Color Temperature for the areas you mention. Generally lower numbers are more relaxing, higher numbers are more stimulating. So a mellow room might be set to 3000, and a workroom to 6000, or inbetween… what tends to happen with LEDs is once you go above about 5000k, CRI tends to fall off… not a lot of high CRI 6000k LEDs I hear about
so people tend to pick a multipurpose favorite, such as N219c 5000k, or N219b 4000k… that sort of general starting point is what I would consider…
suggestion
buy bulbs rated 3000k, 4000k, 5000k, 6000k and do some experiments. Try each bulb in each room…
the CRI will differ, the 3000 is available in Incandescent (think of that as 100 CRI), the 6000 is more likely to be a low CRI (~60?) twisty fluoro… but at least you could test Color Temperature preferences and go on from there to maximize your CRI options…
I would guess I might end up choosing 3000 for the bedroom, 4000 in the living room, 5000 in the kitchen, and 6000 in a workshop. (except Im such a tint and CRI snob, I would probably stop at 5000k to stay above 90 CRI with LED)
dimming may introduce PWM, you could test for that with a phone camera…
Im as curious as you are to learn more about practical Home LED options that are High CRI and Constant Current (NoPWM)… share what you learn
There’s a 5700k nichia 219b 90+ CRI. There’s also a Luminus SBT70 5700k 90 CRI
There are also XP-G3 5700k 90+ CRI
Also forgot XHP 50 and 70 are 90 CRI and 5700k
What about replacing emitters on a cheap strip? Can you get 5050, 3528 or any other widely avalible size in high CRI emitters? If so are they a direct replacement?
Apparently you can get really high CRI with a remote phosphor, Chromalit makes phosphor strips that aren't that expensive, and you just need to put them over some blue LED strips to get nice white light.
Philips Hue are a ripoff, like $20 per bulb! And if I remember correctly, they aren’t even that high of CRI - from what I saw they were under 90 CRI.
Hyperikon makes a 90+ CRI 9W (60W equivalent) LED bulb, they sell on Amazon for under $20 for a 4-pack.
I just got two 4-packs of the Hyperikon 16W (100W equivalent) 84 CRI for my garage and am quite pleased so far (only had them a couple days now, lol).
I went with 100W equivalent bulbs in my garage because of lumens-per-dollar reasons (cost).
In my shop, I use 8 foot T5 HO flourescent fixtures that make about 20,000 lumens and cost $200 including bulbs, I have 3 in a 20x22 shop space.
I considered LED strip lighting, you can get 90+ quad row LED strips that make 14,000 lumens for a 16-foot strip, but the cheapest I could find the strip itself was $130, plus the cost of the required AC/DC convertor to power them.
The A21 sized 100W equiv light bulbs cost $65 for eight (got them on sale) and make 13,000 lumens. (I mounted them all in the existing fixture with one of these and one of these)
Disguised advertising… :P
Cheers ^:)
