I am building an addition on my home which will force the blocking off of an existing window. Rather than removing the window and blocking up the space, I was thinking of sheet rocking one side (addition side) and keeping the window in place on the other (existing room) to give to appearance that a window still exists.

The project is to find a bulb/light that I could put behind the window that would provide light to create a "outdoor light" effect. I would be putting translucent plexiglass in the window to act as a diffuser.

The ideal bulb would:

1 - look as close to daylight as possible
2 - let off little or no heat
3 - be dimmable/scalable in steps

All of these attributes are not set in stone as I could also design the project around "the right bulb."

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated!

 

I've done something similar to that in the past using low wattage fluorescent tubes but they weren't dimmable.

You could probably use rope lighting around the outside edge of the window so that it's out of sight. Those could be dimmable. LED type would be very cool to run.

The link below is just one company.
Rope Lighting, Rope Lights, LED Rope Light, Outdoor Rope Light from Norman Lamps

 

I tried the rope lights - not enough light to compete with natural daylight from adjacent window. I have 8-10 led bulbs I'll be demoing today.

If those are to point specific, I'll try low wattage fluorescent tubes. I can skip the dimming.

 

The best light for this application has turned out to be 5000k and 6500k fluorescent tube lighting. I am using T12 tubes.

 

I would also recommend LED strip lights. They are dimmable, run cool and you can get them in any color you want. Fluorescent is not going to be dimmable without some fancy electronics. T12 are no longer going to be made as they are inefficient. You would be better off with a T8 or even T5 lamps. They will also produce more light with less energy. 5000K is considered to be closest to true sun light.

 

I did try LED cord lighting but for this application the output of the 18 foot cord was not enough when compared to the T12 tubes.

Do T8 run as cool as T12? Can the be touched without discomfort?

 

A T8 is 32 watt where a T12 is 40 so I would expect them to be a bit cooler. And in the 5,000K range they are similar to daylight. But don't give up on the LED, they are available in the 5,000 and up range with better selection coming all the time. And they will use a lot less power than T8's. They have LED replacements for 4' tubes, but not affordable currently.

Rope lights are typically intended to be accent lights and not high on the lumen scale.

How much space do you have to work with?

Bud

 

Sorry for the absence. I am doing 2 24" t8s and 2 48" t8s. Mixing 5000k on top and 6500k on bottom of window sills. I did testing and the flourescent tubs minimize shadows due to their large size. It looks great.

 

Sounds like you found a good setup...... Thanks for the update.