freq

CFL lights DO NOT like moist areas of the home, bathroom for instance.

DrCloud

Well, I'm not that kind of doctor, nor have I ever played one (although I tried when I was a kid, but she wasn't having any of that...).

Anyway, I've heard that it makes you short...

HPH

Scooterboy

I have switch every lamp I could over and love it. The amount of mercury is extremely small. I played with more as a child and it didn't affect me. didn't affect me. didn't affect me. didn't affect me.

I have had no problems with them in the bathroom. In fact I have one directly over the shower.

Zippy

I have them everywhere that I don't I track lighting (which is a good bit of my house.)

I have three bulbs in my hall which have been up without any failures for ~13 years. I also do have them for my our entrance lights and in my bathrooms. In fact when I remodeled the master bath the fan light combo with is in the show uses CFLs (supplied by Panasonic-the manufacturer). In the case of the fan, the bulb is not a "screw-in" type.

I bought a number of "cases" of them ~5 years back. The local utility was subsidizing the cost. I bought them for ~1.50 each.

The rest of my house is lit by a combination of line voltage and low voltage halogens.

PanteraKitty

The small quartz or halogen high intensity bulbs get very hot and they are sensitive to contaminents on the envelope. Even the oil in your skin can cause them to fail sooner than normal. I use tissue or a paper towel to handle them. Light, clean cotten gloves would work too.

boltonblue

as the get a little older they will take a lot longer to turn on.
so stairways etc are not a good location for them.

there are three things to think about:
power or wattage, this is just how much electricity they use and how much heat they will dissipate. it is not an indication of how much light they actually produce.

lumens of output: this is the measure of how much light they actually produce, ie how bright they are.

lastly is color.
the color spectrum is the old roygbiv. red orange yellow etc.
lights have a mix of light. incandescents ( the old fashioned light bulbs) tend towards the yellow side of the range. the fluorescents tend towards the blue side of the spectrum, but they all have a mix. the really low power ones a very dull and blue. ( i hate 'em)

Lainey

That explains a lot!

I'm 5', my sister is 5', two of my sisters are 5'2" and one is almost 5'6". I guess she was the smart one who didn't play with the mercury.

RC - Ryder

I use them where I can. They don't sub for quite a few halogens we have nor numerous can lights on dimmer circuits. The one out by the garage has been in there for over 4 years.

WhiteS2k

We pay 25-cents per 18W bulb, subsidized by our local electric company. How much do the rest of you pay?

On another note, I've been told that one should not turn CFLs (or just florescent lights in general) OFF unless it has been ON for 15-minutes or longer. I have noticed that the florescent light in my closet, which I turn ON/OFF in a minute or two, does not last very long. Maybe I should change back to an incandescent bulb for the closet. Has anyone else noticed this?

NNY S2k

We have plenty of them, I've found that I've replaced some of the old 60's with 100's for more light.
Levi