Nothing has been more exciting in the area of compact fluorescent technology than the newer, higher wattages that are now available.  It only makes sense that people would want higher wattages than were available in the past.  There are many types of lighting applications that require high light output, and up until now there hasn't been a good way to light those areas.  Some people have high bay or low bay situations where a much higher illumination is absolutely necessary for the tasks that are being done underneath.  And of course, for many people, they just like more light in an area but there are some limitations to these bulbs, mainly size.  What you should know about these bulbs is that they are very large.  In many cases, they won't fit fixtures that you might want to put them in.  It's almost a foregone conclusion that you won't be able to fit these in standard table lamps.  High wattage compact fluorescent light bulbs are just very large and they need to be in order to get the correct amount of light output.  Fluorescent bulbs depend on a certain length of tubing which will create the light by the phosphors that are on the inside.  There's no way of getting around that right now, so the higher wattage you have, the larger the bulbs are going to be.  Now if you have the space and the fixture can accommodate these, then you should be in good shape.  There are many people that use these high wattage bulbs in places like garages, industrial or open sockets of all different types.  That's really where they have a good use and of course high ceiling areas where you're trying to replace a much higher watt incandescent lamp.  Sometimes you'll see these kind of applications such as auditoriums or churches or meeting halls.  The selections we have are 55, 65 or 85 watts replacing up to a 300 watt incandescent!

As with all fluorescent bulbs, they rely on ballasts inside of the fixtures or units to make them work. The ballast is important because it is specific for each type of lamp.  You can't change from one type of fluorescent to another without changing the ballast in most cases.  Most of the time though the ballast in the lamp are matched electrically and so it's good to make sure the ballast you have is the right one for the lamp you choose. In fact, these larger compact fluorescents have the ballast as an integral part of the unit.  Typically, you can't separate the two in most applications.  That may change in the future but for right now the ballast the lamp or mated together and you have no choice because they are one complete unit.  This is good for home users because you don't have to determine what's gone bad when it finally does get to the end of its life, you simply replace it with a complete new bulb.

You can get these in a couple of colors including the more desirable full spectrum light.  The full spectrum has special phosphors that give it a similar color to daylight or natural sunshine.  It produces light the way our eyes naturally use it, giving better visual acuity and reducing problems like eyestrain.  But fluorescents can come in many other colors as well and are identified by their Kelvin temperature. By definition, virtually all are full spectrum in that they contain some of all colors in their spectral range. However, the term full spectrum is primarily used when referring to those lamps that fall into the white to blue/white color temperature range. Color temperature is measured by a term called Kelvin. 2700 Kelvin would be a warm tone color and 5000 Kelvin would be a white color.  This would be the two choices that you have in these lamps.  For most people, this will be satisfactory for most of the applications that you might run into. 

Remember that there are many types of high wattage compact fluorescent light bulbs, we describe some of the most common used in home and commercial lighting here.  Keep in mind that we also stock all the larger or linear types of fluorescent lamps used in commercial lighting as well.  Whatever type you choose or have, you will be saving energy while getting the most light you can for your money.  We have a large inventory of fluorescent bulbs for nearly every type of light fixture in the field.  If you need help identifying a bulb, our customer service representatives can help you determine what you have.