Ersatz sunshine, my only sunshine

February 29, 2012 7:36 PM

Help me bring sunshine into my new windowless office! I and my plants will be moving into a windowless office soon, and those SAD lights look so, so awful (also, I don't need that level of intensity). I thought I might just find some nice lamps and find special magical daylight bulbs for them. If I get very ambitious, I might make a rice-paper "window" fixture to put on the wall. What bulbs should I get? Do I need fluorescents or incandescents? What specs should I be looking for?

I have looked through this thread but was hoping I might get some more ideas, as well as recommendations for US-available products. I and my plants thank you!

posted by elizeh to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

I have found that I believe full-spectrum bulbs more when they're somewhat obscured. My brain looks at a visible bulb and says "That can't be sun. It's clearly a lamp." But hide the lamp around a corner, with the light coming into your space, and it happily thinks, "Ah, there's a window just over there around that corner!"
posted by ocherdraco at 8:12 PM on February 29, 2012

When my former partner and his business partner were faced with the same problem, they bought old window frames from Urban Ore in Berkeley, ined the panes with translucent rice paper, mounted them and hung them on the wall, and back-lit them with full-spectrums, creating an effect of a space lit with natural sunlight.
posted by trip and a half at 3:20 AM on March 1, 2012

lined the panes
posted by trip and a half at 3:25 AM on March 1, 2012

People I know who need full-spectrum lighting for things like art projects swear by OttLites; they have both bulbs and fixture, so you may want to poke around their site and see if there is anything you can use.
posted by TedW at 6:13 AM on March 1, 2012

Agreeing with TedW - you don't need to get one of those insanely bright SAD-sanctioned lights to have full spectrum lighting. I sit in my windowless office every day under a clip lamp with a 20w bulb (this one) and a regular bulb in a desk lamp. 20W is equivalent to about a 75watt regular bulb, but if that's too bright, step it down to a 14W, which is equivalent to a 60 watt regular bulb.
When looking for full spec lighting for all day lighting, it doesn't really matter how bright it is - those SAD lamps are as insanely bright as they are because you are supposed to sit under it for only 15-30 minutes. If you are sitting under a desk lamp for 8 hours, it can be a waaaaaay dimmer bulb and still give the same good effect.
The thing you need to look for in a full spec bulb is the color temperature, which is number before the K. The bulb I use is a 5000K bulb. Going below 4000K pretty much becomes ineffective. Most normal indoor lighting is around 3000k.
posted by 8dot3 at 6:29 AM on March 1, 2012

Oh, and this is the lamp that I have. Most of the time I have it angled so I can't see the bulb directly. If you are going for a bulb brighter than 60 or 75 watts, make sure the lamp you get is rated for that intensity. I had a hell of a time finding an inexpensive lamp that would take a bulb stronger than that. The last thing I need to do is burn down my office.
posted by 8dot3 at 6:31 AM on March 1, 2012