design forum - DesignAddict


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	title of this thread your message ...said it all, but I still feel like adding my two cents. There i a small mistake in Olive's description of fluorescents. It is not the gaz that has any effect on the colour of the light, in fact the electrical discharge that makes the gaz molecules mouve does not even create a glow. It is the coating on the inside of the glass that transforms this energy in visible light and influences the colour of the light. Another detail that might be interesting to know is that much of the "flatness" of the fluorescent is due to the size (length) of the tube. It reduces the contrast in shadow and makes the transition between light and shadow less visible. The testing that our office did on this by comparing the same coatings on linear (straight tubes) versus compacts (winded configurations to fit into the space of incandescent bulbs) showed that almost all people find the light of the compact "warmer". In other words a shorter transition between light ands shadow is seen as warmer whereas the elimitation of shadows is seen as cooler. When I see life time statements on light sources I always wonder hoe reliable they are. When we started to look into designs for led fictures a decade or so ago, the technical support people where convinced that the life time was well over 60.000 hrs. When I pointed out that this was around 6 years uninterupted use, and asked how this was possible for something that was labeled as "the latest development" or "new and improuved" depending on the targeted market (the first for professionals, the latter for consumers)they did not have an answer... A last word on designing around the light source. As Olive points out, the shade or the shape of the fixture has a influence on the colour of the light. The danish designer Poul Henningsen was a master in this and coloured his shades in function of the colour he wanted the ficture to emit. It is one of this unfortunate consequences of the sometimes legitimate criticism on functionalism that concerns like these have been pushed aside in favour of (often stupid) formalism. This being said Olive's advise should be framed and put in every home!! associated web images (optional) associated web link (optional) your email your password create a forums account \| you forgot your password?