blue vs yellow

[the other side]

I am trying to figure out what type of lighting I would use if I were trying to have yellow light, not blue light in a room. What I have learned is campfires and camping lanterns produce yellow light at like 600 nm wavelenghts or so (before it becomes infrared). I am trying an experiment. I want to have ONLY yellow light not blue light in a space. I want to be able to see more than with candle light, so I will need more than just a candle. I read about goggles or glasses that I believe are amber ultraviolet that if you wear them you will filter out the blue light, but I won't be able to wear anything on my face.

Can anyone tell me what kind of lighting I could use? Is it just as simple as putting an amber colored globe over a regular lightbulb that produces blue light?

[bobhenry]

Low pressure sodium 589 nm

As with a campfire there is a color recognition problem as the yellow light tends to distort colors making it difficult to clearly recognize them.

[the other side]

Do you know how bright a low pressure sodium 589nm bulb would be? Will it be REALLY bright?

And what would be better for indoors, low pressure sodium or high pressure sodium?

Thanks!

[bobhenry]

Low Pressure Sodium Vs. High Pressure Sodium Lamps
X Kim Dieter Kim Dieter has taught agriscience classes, developed curriculum and participated in the school accreditation process at the secondary and community college levels since 1980. She holds a Master of Science degree from the University of California, Davis, in animal science.

By Kim Dieter, eHow Contributor Low and high pressure sodium lamps are commonly used for outdoor lighting. They provide light in parking lots, along streets and highways, and in areas where security is important. The lamps also provide indoor lighting in large warehouses. Does this Spark an idea?

Other People Are Reading
High Pressure Sodium Vs. Fluorescent Lighting Spectrum of a High Pressure Sodium Lamp
Print this articleColor of Light
Low pressure sodium lamps produce a yellow-colored light. This poor color rendition often limits the lamps to outdoor use where the color is not important. High pressure sodium lamps provide slightly better color rendition with a golden to white light.

Efficiency
Low pressure sodium lamps produce more light per watt of energy consumed than high-pressure sodium lamps, which are slightly less efficient.

Use
Low pressure sodium lamps are best used in applications where the light remains on for hours at a time. They take longer to start up than high pressure sodium lamps and must cool down before they can restart.


So it looks like low pressure bulb will keep you in the wave length you asked for and is more effecient to boot. I found 18 ,35,135,and 185 watt bulbs available. I am sure there are other wattages available too!
I have taken the cheap skate method and have used 5 watt christmas tree bulbs in my beer bottle lamps in the barn. And I can change the colors at will.








and it was ol farts day so they were 30% off ( 35 cents) a little over 4 cents a piece :D

[the other side]

Maybe if I tell you what I am trying to accomplish it would be more direct.

My daughter has a lot of medical problems. One of the problems is her sleeping habits. She sleeps MAYBE 5 hours in a 24 hour period. She takes Melatonin for this and the Melatonin is what helps her sleep for 5 hours. Without Melatonin she only sleeps 3 hrs or so in a 24 hour period. But I was reading about lighting for sleeping disorders. They talked about if you have a sleeping disorder, a few hours before you go to bed you should stay out of blue light. They said before the age of televisions, computers, game machine players, and even electricity, the light of day told our bodies it was time to be awake and when night time came we only used fires for light. Our bodies create more melatonin without blue light. They also were talking about night workers, etc...

But I thought if I could take the blue light out of her sight for a few hours before bedtime (which is 10pm because of medicine and feedings) using only yellow light that is equal to a camp fire or maybe even a camping lantern, her body might start producing more melatonin... Which would make her own body better regulating what time she goes to bed (it won't affect length of sleep patterns though) and one less medicine I have to buy and give at 10pm.

So, if you are using Christmas tree lights, is it just the yellow color of the bulb that makes the light not have blue light in it? Or is it a SPECIAL type of bulb that I would have to use to get the blue light out of her room? Oh, and she can't use fluorescent because it sets her seizures off (the flickering of the fluorescent). My goal isn't ambiance of the color of the lighting, but to take the blue light away from her so her body might produce more melatonin and help her body recognize it is time to sleep.

I have no idea if this is going to work. But how could it hurt to change a lightbulb to try it, and it is safer than candles. Oh, and she has oxygen in her room too! Usually just tanks, but there are the occasions where we have liquid oxygen in the room too.

Hope I'm not driving you crazy but thanks for the help!!!

[bobhenry]

Well ... Studying on the net it appears that even tinting the christmas light will change the wave length.

These values will vary depending on the shade but these are median values

Reds run aprox 660

orange 610

yellow 580 (curious that this is the same value as the yellow low pressure sodium )

green 550

blue/green 500

blue 460

and violet 400

[the other side]

So I could just tint ANY light bulb to change the wavelengths? WOW, that was simple!

I wonder if Spencers sells light bulbs in colors besides blacklights, that fit in a regular lamp?

I can't thank you enough bobhenry! I read and read about it and no where did it say the answers I was looking for in a simple way! They made it sound like you had to get special lights. I'll let you know if it works!!!

[bobhenry]

Keep us posted this was kinda interesting for me and I really want to know the outcome !

It appears from what I read that as the wave length drops the light draws less and less attention thats why police and fire warning lighting are usually red lights I guess.

Make sense if you were light sensative that you would want to be down into the cooler colors of greens, blues ,and violets.

Let us know ! Bob

[the other side]

I will absolutely keep you informed on this matter! I stumbled over this idea when I was doing spring cleaning on all of the medications my daughter takes. I try to eliminate as many meds as I can about every 6 month. I also like to address each of her issues both separately and as a whole picture. Melatonin is actually cheap, but after YEARS of buying it, it isn't that cheap any more. There wasn't a study done on the lighting idea, but more a thought/theory. I figured I could experiment with no harm to my kid, for a cost of what the actual lighting would run me. I got 2 amber chandelier bulbs for $2.87 that can screw into any lamp or overhead light. I think they are only 25 watts (I wish they were like 40 watts) but I will put 2 in the room in different lamps/overheads. If I think there should be MORE light I will simply go out and buy more bulbs. It will be important to test this theory if one can function relatively normal in the lighting, otherwise you could be getting tired from being in the dark (only) and getting bored not doing anything.

Now the police cars are using red, white, and blue lights! (Probably not to be patriotic) but also because some people are color blind as well. The blue is so bright (probably led?) that it isn't calming anymore. On the color charts the "cool colors" are supposed to be the relaxing calming colors. Blue is a cool color. Red is a hot color. When you add the led light it almost makes blue lighting NOT calming anymore, but still cool (in color that is).

I don't like sun at all. I like the room to be rather dark. I prefer cool colors. My husband likes the room blindingly BRIGHT. He also feels miserable on rainy days. I feel FANTASTIC when it rains! Weird stuff!