subject: What are the best light bulbs for bedrooms? [print this page] What are the best light bulbs for bedrooms?
The bedroom is generally not a place where you need large amounts of lighting. This creates two benefits; one, you don't need high-wattage light bulbs, and two, with energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs you'll barely be using any energy at all. Throw in a dimmer switch and you can play with the lighting however you like while remaining energy efficient.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs of wattage at and below 13 watts will fit in any light fixture that previously held incandescents. This makes it easy to retrofit any bedroom and make it more energy efficient by removing old inefficient incandescent light bulbs. CFLs come in dimmable versions as well, so all is well if you have a dimmer switch. Dimmable compact fluorescent light bulbs are best in color temperatures around 2700K to 3000K, which are about the same as incandescent light. Remember that when a light bulb is being dimmed it uses less energy, so with dimmable CFLs you'll negligible amounts of energy.
If you're looking for a different kind of light that incandescent light bulbs cannot provide, look for color temperatures like 4100K and 5000K. These are clear white lights that provide a much nicer light that incandescents are unable to produce. Further up the color temperature scale comes 6500K, which lighting manufacturers in general consider daylight color. It's a bright white light with a slight hint of blue; quite unique compared to incandescents.
Another option for bedroom lighting would be LED light bulbs. They are highly energy efficient just like compact fluorescent light bulbs, although their light spread is not quite perfected yet. Because of that I would recommend looking at LED flood lamps. Such lamps would use tiny amounts of energy to provide proportionally large amounts of light. You may find a roadblock in LED light bulb pricing, but if you wait I expect the prices will become more reasonable.
