Fluorescent Lamp Colours

Choice of Light Colour

Two key factors must be considered when specifying the colour of a fluorescent tube -
the correlated colour temperature (CCT) and the colour rendering index (CRI). The
colour temperature is largely a matter of personal taste. The general preference is to
use cool colours for a business-like atmosphere (e.g. in offices, factories, shops) and
warm colours for a social atmosphere (e.g. in hotels and the home).

However there is considerable variation between different countries in terms of the

most popular fluorescent light colour. The clear favourite in both continental Europe
and North America is 4000K Neutral White. In the UK however the preference is for
3500K tubes, which strikes a balance between creating a professional atmosphere
whilst providing a feeling of warmth for a friendly working environment. In the colder
climes of the Nordic countries the 3000K lamps are preferred, to provide a feeling of
warmth when coming indoors. Conversely the hot conditions in Southern Europe lead
their populations to prefer a cold colour light, which provides the perception of
escaping out of the heat into a cool and comfortable interior space. In all of these
countries however, the warmest 2700K tubes hold court in domestic and residential
lighting where they come close to the favoured appearance of the dominant
incandescent and halogen lighting. These local preferences are contrasted strongly by
practically the whole of Asia, where practically all sales are for the cool daylight lamps
of 5000-6500K, even for residential lighting. Some more detailed applications for the
different colour temperatures are detailed in Figure F2.

Figure F2 - Typical Applications for different Colour Temperatures

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Figure F3 - The Kruithof
Diagram
When choosing the desired
light colour it is crucial to stay
within the boundaries of the
empirically determined
Kruithof diagram (Figure F3),
so as to achieve a natural
colour appearance. The use of
high colour temperatures at
low illumination levels results
in a depressing visual
environment where colours
appear flat and dull.
Conversely the use of warm
colour temperatures at high
illumination levels yields an
unpleasant insipid yellow hue to the surroundings which disturb the feeling of well-
being. The matching of the illumination level to the desired colour temperature is a
key point that is often overlooked in modern lighting design.

Colour Coding Nomenclature

With the launch of the first fluorescent tubes, the choice of colours was restricted to a
single shade of 'White' plus seven vibrant colours. The white was a neutral colour
having a CCT of around 4000K. Soon this was joined by a lower colour temperature
known as 'Mellow' or 'Warm White'. This was rapidly followed by a high colour
temperature light intended to better match the 5600K of natural daylight, and these
lamps were simply called 'Daylight'. During the 1950s and in particular following the
invention of the halophosphate materials, dozens of additional shades of white made
their debut, and these were later augmented by the so called Deluxe colours - which
offered the same colour temperature as earlier tubes but with superior colour
rendering properties. Around this time most manufacturers adopted a coding system
in which a completely arbitrary two-digit number was introduced to define each
colour.

This situation propagated until the early 1990s, by which time there was quite some
confusion in the market. This was not only because of the great number of different
colours and codes, but also because each manufacturer and global region had its own
nomenclature. The situation was rationalised following the introduction of a highly
logical three-digit colour coding system by GE-Thorn in 1990. Such was the simplicity
of this system that during the rest of that decade it was adopted by most other
manufacturers, and also extended to other discharge lamps. The general structure is
illustrated below in Table F2, where the first digit defines the colour rendering group
while the second and third denote the correlated colour temperature.
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Code 1st digit = Colour Rendering 2nd + 3rd = Colour Temperature
530 5 = Ra 50-59 (now 47-56) 30 = 3000 K
640 6 = Ra 60-69 (now 57-66) 40 = 4000 K
726 7 = Ra 70-69 (now 67-76) 26 = 2600 K
850 8 = Ra 80-89 (now 77-86) 50 = 5000 K
965 9 = Ra 90-99 (now 87-100) 65 = 6500 K
Table F2 - Examples of Three-Digit Colour Codes

Some manufacturers continue to dual-brand fluorescent tubes with their original two-
digit serial codes in addition to the modern 3-digit system. There is no logic to these
older codes and they cannot be deciphered to reveal the colour properties without
reference to the manufacturer's literature. A fairly comprehensive cross-reference
table of both historic as well as modern fluorescent colour codes from the key
manufacturers is provided below in Table F3.

Halophosphate Whites (Nominal data for F40T12 lamps)

Cod lm/
Description Philips Osram Sylvania GE-Thorn American CCT CRI CCx CCy
e W
Extra Warm 0.45 0.40
726 - - - Home-lite - 2600 73 61
White 4 0
Warm 0.44 0.40
Warm White 530 Warm 29 HNI 30 WW 129 Warm 29 3000 52 74
White 0 3
UK White 0.40 0.39
White 535 23 W 135 White 35 White 3500 55 76
35 9 4
0.37 0.38
Cool White 640 White 33 HNH 20 CW 133 Cool 33 Cool White 4200 65 75
0 0
0.38 0.38
Universal White 740 Natural 25 HNW 25 UW 125 Universal 25 - 4000 75 65
0 0
Tropical 0.31 0.34
Daylight 765 Daylight 54 10 / HNT 15 D 154 Daylight 6500 75 63
Day. 3 0

Deluxe Whites (Obsolete) (Nominal data for F40T12 lamps)

Cod lm/
Description Philips Osram Sylvania GE-Thorn American CCT CRI CCx CCy
e W
Incand. 0.46 0.41
DX Extra Warm 927 WWDX 27 Interna 39 - - 2650 94 44
Fluo. 1 8
DX Warm 0.43 0.40
DX Warm White 830 Softone 32 HNI-Z 32 WWX DX WW 3000 85 50
32 9 2
Plus White 0.39 0.38
Plus White 736 - HNI-DX 31 - - 3600 74 73
36 9 2
0.38 0.37
DX White 839 34 HNW-Z 22 CWX - DX White 3850 85 50
2 0
°KolorRite 0.38 0.37
DX Cool White A 940 Trucolor 38 HNG 35 - DX Cool 4000 92 40
38 1 7
0.37 0.37
DX Cool White B 941 Trucolor 37 HNW-DX 21 - - - 4100 97 45
4 0
DX Daylight
950 Graphica 47 19 - - Chroma 50 5000 98 - - 46
5000K
DX Daylight Col. Match Northlight 0.31 0.32
962 - DDX 155 D65 6200 94 48
6200K 55 55 3 3
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 Artificial 0.31 0.32
DX Daylight +UV 965 - - - - 6500 95 37
Day 3 9
DX Daylight Abbot-
975 Daylight 57 - - Chroma 75 7500 94 - - 47
7500K Gibson

Triphosphor Deluxe 80 Series (Nominal data for F36T8 lamps)

Cod lm/
Description Philips Osram Sylvania GE-Thorn American CCT CRI CCx CCy
e W
Tri DX Extra Incand DX Home DX 0.46 0.41
827 Lumilux 41 Polylux 827 - 2700 85 95
Warm 82 182 3 7
WarmDX 0.44 0.40
Tri DX Warm 830 WarmDX 83 Lumilux 31 Polylux 830 - 3000 85 95
183 0 5
UK White White DX 0.41 0.40
Tri DX White 835 Lumilux 26 Polylux 835 SPX35 3500 85 95
835 835 5 0
Tri DX Cool White DX 0.38 0.38
840 Lumilux 21 Buro 184 Polylux 840 SPX40 4000 85 95
White 84 0 0
Tri DX Daylight 0.34 0.35
850 Day DX 85 - DDX 185 - - 5000 85 92
5K 6 9
Tri DX Daylight 0.34 0.35
860 - - DDX 186 Polylux 860 - 6000 85 90
6K 6 9
Tri DX Daylight
865 Cool Day 86 Lumilux 11 - - - 6500 85 - - 90
6K

Triphosphor Super Deluxe 90 Series (Nominal data for F36T8 lamps)

Cod lm/
Description Philips Osram Sylvania GE-Thorn American CCT CRI CCx CCy
e W
Tri SDX Ex. Incand DX
927 - - - - 2700 95 - - 63
Warm 92
WarmDX 0.43 0.40
Tri SDX Warm 930 93 Lumilux 32 Polylux 930 - 3000 95 65
193 5 1
0.38 0.37
Tri SDX Cool 940 94 Lumilux 22 Buro 194 Polylux 940 - 4000 95 65
7 1
ColorProof 0.34 0.35
Tri SDX Day 5K 950 95 - Polylux 950 - 5000 98 65
12 4 4
0.30 0.32
Tri SDX Day 6K 960 96 - - Polylux 960 - 6000 98 65
9 4
Tri SDX Day 0.31 0.33
965 BioLight 96 Biolux 72 Activa 172 - - 6500 98 65
+UV 3 5

Coloured Light
lm/
Description Philips Osram Sylvania GE-Thorn CCT CRI CCx CCy
W
0.18 0.14
Blue 18 67 / HNE64 Blue Blue - - 18
7 3
0.23 0.62
Green 17 66 / HNE63 Green Green 7000 22 70
9 2
Gold (Halophosphate +Cadmium 0.50 0.48
- 62 / HNE62 Gold Gold 5000 98 36
Filter) 8 8
Yellow (Modern Cadmium-free 0.53 0.46
16 - Yellow - 2200 34 -
type) 4 4
0.63 0.36
Orange - - Orange - - - -
2 1
Peach - - - Peach - - - - 44
0.54 0.31
Pink - 61 / HNE61 Pink Pink - - 19
8 0
Red (Halophosphate + Cadmium - - Red Red - - 0.70 0.29 4
4/5
Filter) 0 9
0.71 0.28
Red (Modern Cadmium-free type) 15 60 New Red - - - -
3 5

Special Applications
lm/
Description Philips Osram Sylvania GE-Thorn CCT CRI CCx CCy
W
0.25 0.31
Radar Blue - - - Radar Blue - - -
5 7
0.56 0.27
Radar Red - - - Radar Red - - -
5 7
0.37 0.36
Shop Lighting - Extra Warm 36 Natura 36 Natural 136 Natural 4000 90 50
8 5
Food Display (Bread, Patisserie Shoplight FoodStar 0.39 0.35
Natura 76 DX Natural 3600 92 50
etc.) 76 176 0 6
0.36 0.31
Meat Display (Basic CRI) 79 - - - 3800 74 45
9 7
0.38 0.31
Meat Display (High CRI) - - - Rosetta 3200 86 45
0 0
Meat Display with reduced Gourmet 0.38 0.34
- - - 3800 85 -
myoglobin 175 0 0
0.32 0.26
Plant Growth Spectrum 89 Fluora 77 GroLux Super-Gro 6200 37 30
5 1
Plant Growth Wide Spectrum - - GroLux WS - - - - - 41
AquaStar 1000 0.30 0.23
Aquarium Fresh Water Aquarelle - - 71 68
174 0 4 9
0.34 0.35
Aquarium Daylight UV Stop coating - - DaylightStar - 5000 85 95
6 9
0.17 0.04
Aquarium Coral growth - - CoralStar - - - -
6 5
0.30 0.33
Reptile UVB Vitamin D3 Synthesis - - ReptiStar - 6700 95 -
8 8
SAD Treatment - Sky White - - 8000 85 - - -

UV / Actinic Radiation
Description Philips Osram Sylvania GE-Thorn Peak  10% 90%
Blacklight Blue (Fluorescence
08 73 BLB BLB 365 350 390
Effects)
Blacklight 350nm (Photochemistry) Actinic 09 - BL 350 BL 350 320 395
Blacklight Pure UVA (Insect Traps) 10 - BL Quantum - 370 350 390
Actinic 365nm (Diazo Copying) Actinic 05 78 - - 365 320 420
Super Actinic 420nm (Diazo
Actinic 03 HNPs 70 - - 420 400 440
Copying)
Actinic Green (Photocopiers) Actinic 14 72 - - - - -
Reprography Blue 66 - - - - - -
Reprography Green 50 - - - 542 - -
Germicidal - Destruction of DNA TUV - Germicidal Germicidal 254 - -
Medical - Psoriasis Medical 01 - - - 312 - -
Bilirubin
Medical - Hyperbilirubinaemia Medical 52 71 Blue 450 - -
Blue
Tanning Basic - Closed Glass Cleo 09 - PBC - 352 320 390
Cleo Prof
Tanning Professional - Open Glass - PBO - 352 300 370
109
Cleo Pink
Tanning Pink Effect - - - 352 320 390
209

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Tanning UVB / Psoriasis 12 - - - 307 280 315
Table F3 - Cross-Reference Table of Fluorescent Colour Codes

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