[espire]

Originally Posted by Euphoria

First thing I noticed is that they take 2 or 3 minutes to fully light up.

They're getting better all the time, and no longer take much longer than a minute.

They also say they're equal to 100 watt, but they're not nearly as bright. You also can't use them if you have anything with a dimmer.

The ones that are said to be equivalent are equivalent. It's a different light, but it's there and it makes things just as easy to see or read. Perhaps you're using 13-watt bulbs which are equivalent to 50 / 60 (see what I did there?) watts of incandescent light, rather than the 26-watt bulbs which are equivalent to 100 watts incandescent.

Now I find out that these "energy saving" lightbulbs contain mercury and you have to pretty much evacuate your house if one gets broken. And yes, this is all on the box.

No, you don't have to evacuate your house. These warning are horribly overstated, and you don't need to do much at all. Yes, mercury is deadly in large quantities, but a lightbulb's worth won't do any harm in an open room.

I love how we've been tricked into buying these things by telling us we're helping the environment and saving energy, when its just another way for the government to cop out and outsource from China. I guess I'll take this as a lesson learned to read everything I buy, and not be stupid enough to spend 40 bucks on lightbulbs.

It's not a matter of tricks and copping out, it's what the government has decided is best. You are helping the environment, and you are saving energy. The lightbulbs also don't cost anything like $40; Maybe $3 for a 26-watt bulb. RadioactiveMan can help you with pricing.

There are reasons not to use compact fluorescent, but not throughout your house. You might want to use incandescent in the living room or the bedroom to set a mood (the light still has more metaphorical warmth to it), and you can't dim with CFL yet. That will be possible soon enough.


Rethink your choice, Euphoria. Congress doesn't always get it right. In fact, they didn't even get it right here, as incandescent bulbs should still be available (maybe heavily taxed). But they got the idea right; America should switch to compact fluorescent.