New fluorescent less bright than old

[Kes]

Hi,

A little while ago someone in this forum suggested fitting fluorescent lights on top of kitchen wall cabinets where they mostly cannot be seen, and bouncing the light off the white ceiling. This is a brilliant idea, relatively cheap fittings, low running costs and quite effective diffused lighting. So I rigged up an old mag ballast 36" fluorescent I had spare to test it. Yes, fine, so I bought two 1 mtr slimline fittings with electronic ballast. They will be opposite each other about 4m apart. I connected the first new fitting and switched on to compare old with new: I expected the light emitted from the new fitting to be brighter than from the old one, but surprisingly it appears to be less bright (with or without diffuser).

Is the difference just down to the tubes? Both are T8 900mm. The markings on them are:

Old: Philips TLD 30W/35

New: Osram L30W/530 Eterna

The light from the new tube seems yellower. Is this warm white, and the old tube cool white? I can't find these reference numbers on Google, nor the lumens output. Would I be better to go for triphosphor tubes?

Rgds.

 

[breezer]

probably .

put both tubes nexxt to each other can you see a colour difference?

 

[Steve]

Next time you're in a shop, like a supermarket, look along the rows of lights, you'll likely see a few lights that are a different colour. There are a lot of shades of white to choose from.

 

[Kes]

Hi,

Both tubes (when not on!) appear to be much the same colour. There are a lot of shades available but the trouble is which to chose. I think I'll try a tri-p cool white if I can get one (when I get round to it).

Rgds.

 

[breezer]

i meant try them when they are on