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Dear_one
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07 Jan 2020, 10:49 am

In my workshop areas, where I want the most sun-like light with good colour and very sharp shadows, I use clear incandescent bulbs up to 200 watts. I can use the 90% waste heat. However, this lamp looks designed to put all that light on a much smaller area. Thanks for digging out that "150 watt equivalent" detail.

I often work with just a bit of room lighting, the screens, and a little Ott-lite book-reading lamp for the keyboard.



blazingstar
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07 Jan 2020, 12:30 pm

I've never given much thought to lighting and reading this thread, maybe I should. I don't have enough light in a bunch of places and never really figure out what to do about it. I need to get a light for over the piano. Lights need cords and there isn't any convenient place to put an electric cord, so I just get stymied by that.

My office has just one bulb overhead light. I need more light in the office, but again am stymied by what to do about it. Maybe this thread will inspire me to make some progress.

The light I like best is the light that comes in through the windows.


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Dear_one
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07 Jan 2020, 2:14 pm

"Swag lamps" can hang over a piano, and decorate their cords with a chain. There are also surface mount wiring fittings that can act as permanent, safe extension cords. They are all neat and paintable, and there may be some flat ones.
Efficient bulbs are seldom as bright as 150 watts of incandescent, so in my kitchen I use Y shaped splitters to put three bulbs where one used to be. These are sold in every hardware store. You can also swap light fixtures to get more sockets. Any moderately handy person can probably do the job if you can't. Having multiple bulbs is a cheap way to get more spectrum if you don't mind them not matching.

One day, the new boss of an air force base noticed that the fluorescent lights in his hangars were randomly warm and cool. He decreed that each hangar should have only one colour. So, fairly soon a janitor emerged with a big double armful of 8' long tubes, carrying them like a forklift. As soon as he left the steel enclosure and the powerful radar beam swept across the tubes, they lit up. They got tossed in the air, and he ran.



blazingstar
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07 Jan 2020, 5:51 pm

There is a logistical problem with light for piano music. The light needs to illuminate the music, but can't be back so far as to have my head block the light.

https://www.amazon.com/Cocoweb-Adjustab ... s9dHJ1ZQ==

I don't have a grand grand piano, but I do have a very nice upright grand which is a gorgeous piece of furniture in addition to a musical instrument. So I don't want a light that looks cheap on it either.

bluecountry, the links you have would not curl over enough to illuminate the sheet music. But thanks.


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Dear_one
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07 Jan 2020, 5:53 pm

bluecountry wrote:


They probably have the spectrum right. What are you using the light for? If it is mainly a keyboard, it barely matters because screen light dominates your vision. If you use the whole room, the general lighting matters. A reading light is usually free-standing.



Dear_one
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07 Jan 2020, 6:01 pm

blazingstar wrote:
There is a logistical problem with light for piano music. The light needs to illuminate the music, but can't be back so far as to have my head block the light.

https://www.amazon.com/Cocoweb-Adjustab ... s9dHJ1ZQ==

I don't have a grand grand piano, but I do have a very nice upright grand which is a gorgeous piece of furniture in addition to a musical instrument. So I don't want a light that looks cheap on it either.

bluecountry, the links you have would not curl over enough to illuminate the sheet music. But thanks.


There are many historic piano lamps. I'm partial to brass myself. If you don't like any of those, you can illuminate sheet music with a floor lamp behind and beside you. The swag lamp could be similarly off-center, which probably helps for access to the bench anyway. You can also aim spot lights from farther away, or wear a headband flashlight. Or, you could photograph your music and use a screen to display it, which could have many advantages.



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08 Jan 2020, 8:03 am

Most of your old-school "piano lamps" stand on the floor and were designed to be positioned at the side and a little behind the person playing the instrument. Usually they are oil-fired with burners of the centre-draft Argand or Kosmos varieties, though I have seen Duplexes and maybe a B & H Rayo. Many of them were scrapped for brass in WWII, but there are still some out there, even with electric bulbs replacing the old oil burner.

There are plenty of nice lamps available after the turn of the 20th century that sit on top of the piano...the standard "Emeralite" banker's lamp--brass with a green glass shade--is very nice for an upright piano as it illuminates the music stand & the keyboard. I'm currently using one right now for study at the writing-desk. (The 1935 Eagle is retired to a side stand so I can use it nights when a stronger light is not needed.)

My latest lamp purchase was a c.1910 B&H Rayo center-draft. It needs a new flame spreader, chimney, wick, shade, and fuel tank cap. Other than that it is ready to burn again--especially since there is a fuel cap and a flame spreader sitting in my parts start from a severely beat-up Rayo.

Kerosene lamps are weird, can be smelly, take time to warm up, and definitely are fire hazards if not tended well. But they are a nice solution for some of us light-sensitive types because they do have a warmer look, they do give off white light, and they look very pretty on display. But they are dangerous if filled with incorrect fuel (An antique centre draft lamp is kerosene only, not lamp oil or gasoline!) and they can be more expensive to run.


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bluecountry
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08 Jan 2020, 9:37 am

Dear_one wrote:
bluecountry wrote:


They probably have the spectrum right. What are you using the light for? If it is mainly a keyboard, it barely matters because screen light dominates your vision. If you use the whole room, the general lighting matters. A reading light is usually free-standing.


This will be for my work office, which is its own room but with no natural light.
Given that, what works best?

Without light, my office is pitch black even with a PC.



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08 Jan 2020, 9:58 am

Depends on whether your light needs are "'normal" or not.

The really hard part of autism is that needs are not related to each other. Previously you posted you have a sensitivity to noise. Does this mean you have a sensitivity to too much light? I don't know. Don't recall such a study about a correlation between noise sensitivity and light sensitivity. Didn't see anything about a light sensitivity in your 157 posts, but I may have missed something.

Old people often need more light, until they get cataract surgery. But you are only 28.

Some people on the spectrum need less light. I don't really know how common this is. I do know a NT who intentionally has his office dimly lit because he doesn't like the overhead florescent lights.

Some people need a fulls spectrum light. Lots of people don't like traditional florescent light. Ott-Lites are technically florescent light, but they use special technology to fill in the spectrum gaps to produce a full spectrum light. I'd just buy an Ott-Lite myself.

I think you need to try out different lights until you figure out what works. If you were rich you could afford to have medical tests done to figure out what is best, but most of us can't afford that.



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08 Jan 2020, 12:41 pm

bluecountry wrote:

This will be for my work office, which is its own room but with no natural light.
Given that, what works best?

Without light, my office is pitch black even with a PC.


What do you do in your office? Computer work? Interviews? Paperwork? Art? In general, you want enough light to show everything in the room, but more light on where you are usually looking. A high gradient between the two areas may encourage focus, but too much makes the eyes work harder when you look around.



bluecountry
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08 Jan 2020, 2:52 pm

Dear_one wrote:
bluecountry wrote:

This will be for my work office, which is its own room but with no natural light.
Given that, what works best?

Without light, my office is pitch black even with a PC.


What do you do in your office? Computer work? Interviews? Paperwork? Art? In general, you want enough light to show everything in the room, but more light on where you are usually looking. A high gradient between the two areas may encourage focus, but too much makes the eyes work harder when you look around.

Mostly computer work.



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08 Jan 2020, 2:58 pm

You may also be able to swap bulbs for more or less light, particularly if you buy a lamp with the common Edison base.
https://products.ottlite.com/c-177-bulbs.aspx
Just be sure that you don't exceed the wattage for the lamp or fixture you are using.



bluecountry
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16 Jan 2020, 10:16 am

Thanks...that lamp works, but I also need another lamp as that wont do the whole room.
I got a standard pole lamp, should do, but I need light bulb suggestions.
Current one is too bright.....120 W/60 HZ LED 6W



Dear_one
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16 Jan 2020, 10:20 am

bluecountry wrote:
Thanks...that lamp works, but I also need another lamp as that wont do the whole room.
I got a standard pole lamp, should do, but I need light bulb suggestions.
Current one is too bright.....120 W/60 HZ LED 6W

Have you tried pointing it another direction, to bounce light off the ceiling? How about adding some paper to block some light? I think we have covered what to look for in bulbs.



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16 Jan 2020, 11:38 am

bluecountry wrote:
Thanks...that lamp works, but I also need another lamp as that wont do the whole room.
I got a standard pole lamp, should do, but I need light bulb suggestions.
Current one is too bright.....120 W/60 HZ LED 6W


40 watt incandescent!


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