Sunlight SciencesIndoor Sunshine: 30-watt Spiral Bulb

...and there was light!!This bulb is amazing! I suffer from SAD as well as live a third shift lifestyle so I was really crossing my fingers for this to work and hallelujah it does! I bought two to start as I was skeptical and they absolutely delivered on the promise of brightness. My mood has changed dramatically and I literally have sunshine in my home.I took this picture at 3am.

This bulb throws out a nice bright light, and really brightens the room.... However...Received the bulb (using it an average of 2 hours per day) and it lasted a little over a month.... Contacted the seller and they were nice enough to send a replacement. The replacement lasted about 2 weeks... When contacted again, the seller did not respond.For a cost of over $20, and advertised for lasting over 10,000 hours... These bulbs have been an extreme disappointment. There are much better and brighter options out there at this price.

First of all, if you buy this bulb you need to understand the color temperatures of lighting. If you don't do some research. This bulb claims a CRI of 95%. I also have TCP bulbs at 5000K with a claimed CRI of 82%. I will say that the indoor sunshine bulb looks much better. I was expecting that the better color rendition would be responsible for the difference but there is another factor. Comparing side by side the color actually looks about the same to me, but the indoor sunshine bulb looked more stable which made me feel relaxed. Looking at their website, they claim the ballast on these bulbs operates at 50,000 cycles per second which is very fast. I believe this is responsible for the perceived stability and I would bet that the typical CFL is running much lower.Overall it doesn't beat the light quality that is offered by certain halogen M16's and perhaps a select few LED's such as the Soraa also in MR16. However, these are standard screw base bulbs with high efficiency and so I will not compare them. As far as CFL's go, at this color temperature, these are the best I have seen.At 30 watts you need to have a fixture that will look acceptable with such a bright light source. I am using a tall torchiere lamp so that the only visible light is what is reflected from the cieling. If you are using a lamp, you need a very large lamp shade or consider a smaller bulb.Update:Many years have passed and although this bulb never failed me, newer and better LED's bulbs have taken the place of this bulb in my house. The 5000k color temperature is hard to blend with other light sources.

It's bright, but kind of in a fluorescent way, not a real sun type way. BUT! I will say, it does the job. When I have this lamp on, I feel motivated, happy, and I have tons of energy. Also my cats love it. I'm going to try it on my plants.

It works but, 2 months of usage and completely dead! I was using this for bulb for UV sensing for an app I was building. Left it on about 4 hrs a day and after two short months it does not work anymore. I think I wasted my money on this one. I do NOT recommend it.

It comes on slowly, but when it's full on bright- it really is indoor sunshine.Changes my mood on dreary fall days.Placebo? Maybe. But often that is all we need.

I have a very dark basement and that is where my washer/dryer are located. I have 4 of these in my basement and it feels like a bright and sunny day now! They arrived in 2 days in a well protected box with bubble wrap around the bulb package! I purchased one more for my son's roon because he has seasonal depression and he said it is helping him.

The only drawback to this light is that it produces a high pitched hum at times. It may be from out particular light fixture, however. I love the light it casts down which is much easier on the eyes and reduces headaches caused by the horrible glare from manmade light.