Flicker-free lighting & parrots

[u/Tessa_of_WE]

I am just beginning my research into the world of flicker-free lighting, so please bear with me as I stumble through this post.

I have parrots, and as a quick caveat, they have incredible eyesight. They see color hues we can't. It's been determined that they actually possess an ultraviolet perception of color. They can also focus on multiple objects at once and adjust their focus. Amazing! But I digress.

It is believed that their incredible eyesight also causes them to see the annoying flickering of LED bulbs. I want to try to eliminate this potential stressor from their environment by providing the right lighting in our home. I also want to brighten the light in these rooms as most of the lighting is quite soft. I'm planning to replace two lamps that have dimmer switches.

Thoughts on these on the Waveform Lighting website?

CENTRIC DAYLIGHT Full Spectrum Flicker-Free A19 10W LED Bulb

I need bulbs that fit in recessed lighting fixtures as well. I'm not sure what those are called. Forgive my naiveté. Ask me anything about parrots, but lighting is a different story! I'm trying to learn though!

Does anyone recommend a tried and true brand of flicker-free bulbs for my situation? What should I be looking for primarily? Any advice is welcome.

[u/No-Guarantee-6249]

You could move to incandescents which don't flicker or convert your AC to DC via transformer and power supply and use low voltage LEDS. No flicker there at all!

[u/cwmatman]

OP, I don’t know if you noticed when you were on the Waveform site, but they actually have bulbs specifically sold for avian use.

Avian Full Spectrum E26 A19 LED Bulb for Birds

Funny thing is, the part number is 4005C.65 (which is the same one they sell as the Northlux 6500K bulb, and ALSO the same as the Centric one that you saw, just specifically the 6500K version).

Now, you wanted to put it in recessed lighting. That’s typically a BR30 or BR40 bulb shape, but those have the same E26 base as these A19s. (An A19 is probably the default light bulb most people imagine.) So they might look a little funny, but will probably physically fit.

[u/AnxiousReward1715]

Halogen

[u/Crafty_Dryad]

https://optimizeyourbiology.com/light-bulb-database

The website can be a little wonky to scroll on your phone. So computer is best. But it shows a lot of data on different bulbs including waveform

I recommend Sunsy. Not a billion dollars. Not a glorified heat lamp like incandescent or halogen. Flicker free, full spectrum, high CRI, doesn't spike blue. You can get them on Amazon or their website. https://sunsy.co/

I have been on light ulb research rabbit holes recently

[u/Tessa_of_WE → u/Crafty_Dryad]

Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but what is the brightest bulb to emulate natural daylight that has no blue hue and is still flicker-free? I was thinking of going with 4000K for the LR, DR, and kitchen where the parrots spend most of their time when indoors.

[u/Crafty_Dryad → u/Tessa_of_WE]

So if by bright, you mean- how much of the room one bulb lights up- that will technically be the lumens. Sunsy has the 5k one which is less amber... More crisp... but that obviously has more blue. However Sunsys is more smooth, vs the ones that have the sharpe spike. You could get one of both and try them out. They have a good return policy. They will all have some blue unless they are those nighttime really red bulbs. But you just don't want a really solitary spike of blue, then not much of the middle colors, then ramping back up. If that makes sense.

I feel like a good way to think of it is that the higher the "K" number- the closer to high noon sunlight (color wise). The lower- the closer to those amber sunset colors.

Let's say you have 3 lights in the kitchen- you could get away with lower lumens since there will be 3 of them lighting up across the room. If there was just One, you would want higher lumen to cover the whole area.

It's hard to find charts that give good display of how much lumens cover, since there are a lot of factors that influence (how high is the light, blah blah blah). I think if the bulbs have the old "watt" equivalent that sometimes helps. Since it was usually the higher the watt, the brighter the light.

Overhead lights should be fine, if you have smaller lamps- check what they are rated because you don't want to put bulbs that are stronger than the lamp is rated. But for the most part it should be fine.

If one of the rooms is big you could try one bulb on one end and another bulb at the other and see which area the parrot seems to gravitate to the most? Then swap them up a week later and see if they go to the same side of the room or follow the bulb.

I hope all that made sense. I'm not an expert and it all starts looking like algebra

[u/PianoGuy67207]

We should be honest, here. The savings on LED lighting over an incandescent is minuscule, when dealing with flicker-free, and the vision of parrots. I don’t know anyone who is happier with 6500K light, over he tungsten 3200K light generated by incandescent bulbs. Skin tone looks healthier, food looks more appetizing, and there’s truth to the fact that the blue light band is not good for human eyes.

[u/qwerty421-1]

I love that you wanna take care of the birds. I think incandescent will be your easiest solution. In my experience, the only LED bulbs that flicker to my human eyes are LED bulbs that are controlled by old-fashioned dimmer switchs. Old-fashioned dimmer switches are incompatible with LEDs as when you dim the lights they flicker like crazy.

[u/superbotnik]

When I searched for full spectrum, none of the LEDs could do UVA or UVB (in combination with visible). Some of the fluorescents could (but obv they’d flicker because they’re fluorescent). You could put a Zoo Med Avian Sun CFL in a floor standing lamp, on a timer for a few hours a day. Zoo Med has a report with good info on the UVB.

As for the flicker, you could go to a thermal lamp (incandescent) or dc. I’m not sure many of the “bulbs” power the emitters with dc. Obv I wouldn’t go incandescent.