Help with light bulbs? I'm like Goldilocks, need a "just right" bulb!

8 years ago

Hi, so I painted my interior all SW Repose Gray, and now see the faintly greenish cast that I had been warned about. I'm trying to coordinate light bulbs to minimize the warmth and emphasize the cool grey, but have been through so many so far, I'm ready to tear my hair out! Not only can I not find the right color/temperature, I'm discovering a sensitivity to LED's in general regardless of dimmer switch involvement.

The only bulbs I like so far are in a couple table lamps with incandescent clear GE Reveal bulbs, and the only other ones I like are my old incandescents in 100 or 75 watt levels. I don't know what kind they are as they're so old.

My biggest issue so far is in my dining room, where I have a candelabra-style chandelier with shades, on a dimmer, that holds standard size bulbs. Regular size bulbs peek out over the top of the shades by 1/4 inch, and I want something that is cool but properly dimmable. 2700 Kelvin is too warm (green/beige walls!), 5000 was too cold (pretty gray walls, but OUCH my eyes!), and I've tried different lumens/wattages on each. I'm finding that no matter what version of LED I use, regardless of whether they're on a dimmer, I can discern the flicker at any level, and after less than an hour I have a headache and my eyes hurt. I'm having the same issue with my undercabinet lighting which is also LED, but that's much less remove-able.

I can adjust the lighting in the other rooms with lamps, etc., but the two rooms I spend the most time in (dining room and kitchen) are going to be the death of me. I think I've exhausted my LED options, unless I'm missing something. Am I stuck with CFL or incandescent?

Featured Answer

Molly

7 years ago

I also used Sherwin Williams, but went with Mindful Grey, which is pretty close. I used 4000K LEDs I found on Amazon. See the before and after pictures here for an idea of how it looks.

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Comments (6)

PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
8 years ago
So where I live you can’t even buy incandecsent bulbs any more . 5000 K LEDS mimic bright sunlight which IMO is the best light for kitchens . I have Leds almost everywhere now in my house and do not notice any flickering so maybe it is that you have the wrong kind of dimmer . CFL are also being fazed out where I live the worst thing is they take a few minutes to even come up to full brightness which would make me crazy. Incandecsents have a yellow light that IMO effects how colors look when the lights are on so if you want to highlight the gray in your paint you need 3600-5000 K Leds
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PRO
The Kitchen Abode Ltd.
7 years ago
Flickering LEDs when on dimmers is an industry issue. You can't just use any old dimmer. Make sure your dimmer is specifically designed for LED lights. Many of the LED light manufacturers are providing lists of approved dimmers for their LED system. Check to see they have this.
J
Original Author
7 years ago
@the kitchen abode ltd: Thanks, but I mentioned in my original post that the issue is regardless of whether they're on dimmers. I can see the flicker/flutter on solid connections, and also on the LED-specific dimmers I installed as well. It seems like I just have a sensitivity to it, after posting this over a year ago, I never found a solution and just dealt with it.
J
Original Author
7 years ago
@Molly - thank you! Those definitely highlight the difficulties in finding the right bulb. Thank you for sharing that! I'll look for some 4k bulbs next time I'm out.
PRO
AvaAllan15a
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Did you try to use a cover glass so you can change/adjust the warmth of the light? This is probably the easiest way, if you want one color, if not, then it will be very awful to change it all the time. My advice is to get a get a smart bulb like https://www.amazon.com/smart-light-bulb-bulbs-color/dp/B0922Q43LY/, you can adjust the color however you want, not even touching it, just using an application from your smartphone. This is very fast and convenient.