These bulbs are bright and work great! My husband and I used to be big fans of 4000,000 (Kelvin) incandescent bulbs because with age the soft white (usually 2,700,000) becomes too yellow to be seen well and - at least in the past - 5,000,000 was too hell. So some time ago bought 4000k. HOWEVER, we recently bought a house with very high ceilings. Although the lights are at the usual height above the kitchen worktop etc, I never realized until now that 5000K bulbs are best for very high ceilings.