Lighting, Light Fixtures, Ceiling and Exhaust Fans - Confused about daylight CFLs

I recently bought several "daylight" CFLs, rated ~ 5800 K color temperature. Ironically, instead of being close to daylight, it's artificially white. Yes, they're very bright, but not even close to sunlight. I know bulbs can't reproduce sunlight very well, but halogens (especially the torchieres) get pretty close.

I'm looking for CFLs that can do as close to this as possible. I did some searching here and found that getting lower color temp bulbs may work.

But I'm still confused about the term "daylight." How can this blaring white light be anything like daylight? In fact, to me it seems even further from daylight than plain 'ol incandescent bulbs.

As far as wavelength, incandescent is as close to real sunlight as you will get.
At this time, flourescent is as as artificial as it gets.
I have installed thousands of flourescent fixtures in my time in the field and have yet to see one I liked.

Thanks for the info. Any idea why they call these CFLs "daylight" when they are even whiter and more artificial then regular CFLs? i.e., they seem even further away from daylight than normal CFLs.

Daylight color temperature varies with time of day and cloudy conditions, but generally is between 6,500K and 10,000K -- well into a blue tint. At the "Magic Hours" just before dusk & after dawn, the temp drops to 3,000K or less, which is why the sky looks golden. At noon it is 5,500K, which is as close to pure white as it gets. 500 higher gives it a "cool white" (blue) tint, and 500 lower gives it a "warm white" (yellow) tint.

"Warm" lighting is usually 3,200K or lower. That throws it toward a yellow, then red tint. Incandescent lamps fall into this category.

Our eyes & brain compensate for these color temps to "white balance," but if you're used to seeing incandescent and change one lamp in a room to CFL you'll believe the CFL is too starkly blue/white. In fact, it's your eyes fooling you. The CFL is white, and your eyes have compensated for the incandescent.

Try it in reverse. Turn on only the CFL. Wait in the room for your eyes to adjust, then turn on the incandescent. It will look yellow.

I've replaced about every light in my house with the GE Daylight CFL"s that are 6500k and love them. The whole house looks so much brighter. I guess it's a personal thing,you either love "em or hate 'em.

Good points. But the noontime light that falls through the window clearly looks more yellow than pure white. If that is approx 5500K, then the 5800K CFLs should approximate that. Just to test it, I turned on the CFLs and a halogen torcheire I have - independent of each other - while sunlight was falling inside. And the CFLs were still way, way whiter than the sunlight. Shouldn't the two match? Or maybe were these just bad quality CFLs??

When they first came out with INCANDESCENT "daylight" bulbs, I had to have them. I put them in a couple rooms and kept doing before and after tests between the old ones and these. I was amazed. They really DID look like the natural sun was coming in the window. These incandescents had a bluish tinge to the glass.

You're right - those did look similar to sunlight. All the more reason I was surprised that the ones I got looked so artificially white. I may try another brand. Have you found any CFLs that look as good as those daylight incandescents?

Sunlight color temp changes with the angle of the sun. The 5,500K temp is not a constant at noon this time of year because the sun is in the southern sky. Try it again on June 21st.

You're right - those did look similar to sunlight. All the more reason I was surprised that the ones I got looked so artificially white. I may try another brand. Have you found any CFLs that look as good as those daylight incandescents?

Haven't even tried. I've just been buying the CFL's that are energy star rated and are on special for 99 cents each at about 5 hardware stores in town. Cheaper than at home centers, even when the home center has $2 per bulb mail-in rebate sticker. The cheap ones I've been getting are in-store rebate so all I pay is 99 cents. I'm sure as time goes on we'll be hearing more about the sunlight CFL's. I do know they now have various party type CFL bulbs that come in various bright colors.

At commercial building I take care of we have been switching to the higher K 4100 cool-white bulbs as I personally prefer that over the hotter pink-hued lower K bulb, in the T8 bulbs we get.

Sunlight color temp changes with the angle of the sun. The 5,500K temp is not a constant at noon this time of year because the sun is in the southern sky. Try it again on June 21st.

Interesting - I'll have to do a little more investigation on that!

ecman51, I may try doing the same thing and see how it works.