I am happy to share my rants on Compact Fluorescent 
I realize you think you are saving the planet, greening your home, benefiting society; however, have you considered all the other environmental and human consequences of this product? Probably not. Read on.
- Incandescent bulbs - Easier on the Eyes: Soft-white and frosted incandescent light bulbs have proven to provide superior quality lighting. By comparison, reports have shown that even when they are new, CFLs produce the worst quality of any major light source. And a CFL bulb can lose nearly 25% of its lumens as it ages. One of the major problems with the spiral design of a CFL is that too much of the light is focused inward. By comparison, incandescent bulbs will radiate light outward from the center. and they have the advantage of being designed for specific fixtures to maximize the usable light output . And incandescent bulbs do not take 3 to 15 min. to 'warm up'.
- Humanely Aesthetic – with incndecent the glow is warm, soft, calming, a yellowish tinting, which makes our skin looks healthier, we see color truer than with fluorescents. Fluorescent light has a cooler glow, harsher, with a green/ blue/ grey cast - despite all the warmer versions on the market – there is still a distinct difference between the two, skin tones appear pale and natural discoloring is highlighted. Ladies beware of applying your make up in fluorescent lighting, you'll apply more than nessesary. Painting? Your wall color will also need adjusting for both color perception and cooler light reflectance fyi - go with deeper, richer and warmer colors. – LCK
- It's all in your head... Teri Robert tells about lighting and migrains in the about.com artile "Headaches? – Check the Lighting" "If you find that you have more headaches and migraines while at work, it may be the office lighting. Traditional office lighting generally presents three potential headache and migraine triggers: Glare on computer screens from any overhead lighting, Glare from overhead incandescent lighting, Flicker from fluorescent lighting." "Although generally imperceptible to the human eye, fluorescent lighting has a flicker. It's the flicker itself that's actually a migraine trigger. Thus, it doesn't matter what kind of fixture houses the tubes. People who are sensitive to that flicker will have a problem with it. The best solution is to remove it from your immediate work area." "I asked ophthalmologist Scott Strickler, M.D. to "shed some light" on this subject from the angle of eye strain also. He explained that incandescent lighting is actually better work lighting. Fluorescent lighting is good to wash a large area in light, but provides very poor task lighting. He suggested that workers in offices with fluorescent lighting also need desktop task lighting for working with papers, books, etc. As for problematic fluorescent lighting? "Turn them off or disable the tubes," he told me. "It's so simple that I can't imagine an employer objecting." http://headaches.about.com/od/triggers/a/office_lighting.htm Miserable lighting at work? Is that how you want to feel at home – the newer high quality CFL’s supposedly refresh themselves with cycles too fast for the human eye/ brain to detect. You be the judge: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=flickering-fallacy-cfl-bulb-headaches
- Fluorescent lights will fade textiles and art: Sunlight, fluorescent, even the traditional incandescent — all fade artwork and textiles. It’s basically a matter of degree. Sunlight, for example, is intense and from a part of the light spectrum that causes quick fading and damage. Be aware that fluorescent light also contains high levels of UV radiation. Ultraviolet exposure to art may manifest itself as brittleness, darkening, bleaching, yellowing, general fading or the change of only certain colors. - Keep artwork away from direct light, whether sunlight or artificial sources. Energy Efficient Compact Fluorescent Lights May Emit High Levels of UV Radiation
- Incandescent bulbs can outlast CFLs. Really, it's true, there is a light bulb from 1901 still burning http://www.snopes.com/science/lightbulb.asp
- Dimmers: Incandescents are better with a dimmer switch. Some of the best applications for incandescent light bulbs are in accent lamps, buffet lamps, reading lamps, desk lamps, floor lamps, hurricane lamps, display lighting, bath/vanity lighting, wall sconces, swing arm lights, chandeliers, close-to-ceiling mounts, directional lights, flush mounts, kitchen island lighting, pendants, landscape lighting, path lights, post lanterns, spot/flood lights, garage door openers, and ceiling fans. All of these applications can be used with a dimmer switch. By comparison CFL bulbs in all reality are not designed for normal household use. Not only does a CFL take at least 3 minute to warm up, but each time you turn it off and on again, you shorten its life. Installation in an enclosed fixture or base down position will further shorten the life of CFLs by a substantial amount. Using a dimmer switch will nullify the warranty of a typical CFL bulb. By installing a dimmer switch, you will not only save power (you are using less power when dimmed, unlike CFL's using the full power) but it can also extend the lifetime of the incandescent bulb up to ten years or more. The clever display by eco-dim that is show above was found at a local big box store. Customers can slide the dimmer switch to see how much energy can be saved and how much longer each setting can make a light bulb last.
- So many to choose from – there are more styles of incandescent bulbs –Many more choices are available for incandescent bulbs such as Long Life, Clear, Soft white bulbs, and Frosted bulbs. Incandescent bulbs are manufactured for specific applications. These include Reflector bulbs, Bent tip bulbs, Appliance bulbs, Tube, Globe, Blunt tip and 3-way bulbs. Incandescent bulbs also are available in a variety of bases including: Candelabra Bases, European Bases, Medium skirted bases, Mogul bases and more. Many fixtures can only accept incandescent bulbs. My personal favorite is the Fan light (smaller bulb – designed for ceiling fan lights – they are designed to handle the fan vibrations – I use them most often in bedside lamps and especially hard to reach/ replace lighting fixtures – most last 3-5 years (I have a bedside light bulb on it’s 6th year – it is turned on and off a few times every morning and night!) - LCK
- Lower your energy bill with Incandescent bulbs ? Yes, Save energy this winter. Incandescent bulbs can help LOWER your total energy costs. At least in the cooler climates it's true. Let the heat byproduct of incandescent bulbs work in your favor. The warmth of an incandescent bulb next to your work area or reading chair will allow you to turn down the thermostat a few degrees for the entire house and save on your heating bill. Is this idea too simple to mention? Also, since the CFLs need a few minutes to warm up they will tend to be left on when they should be turned off. This can result in them being left on for up to 20 times or more longer than an incandescent bulb. These are the kind of 'facts' that are left out of most equations when the light bulbs are compared.
- Mercury: Take a look at the mercury content of one of the CFL bulbs. Even when you factor in the so called "low mercury bulbs", they average about 4mg per bulb. It costs 10-50,000 dollars to properly remove mercury contamination from your home.
- China's war on the Global environment: Chinese diplomats not only have declared that "It's their turn to pollute the environment." they are going about it on an almost unimaginable scale. So what does this got to do with my light bulbs? Since almost all of the CFL bulbs are produced in China, jobs in the U.S, related to the lighting industry are being eliminated almost daily along with any chance to limit the environmental impact of their manufacture. Let's take a look at the pollution from Chinese factories and the amount of energy required to produce CFLs, keeping in mind that there are over one hundred factories in China manufacturing these bulbs. Read this quote from the Wall St. Journal "On a recent hazy morning in eastern China, the Wuhu Shaoda power company revved up its production of electricity, burning a ton and a half of coal per minute to satisfy more than half the demand of Wuhu, an industrial city of two million people." This is high sulfur content coal that is being burned with virtually no pollution controls. These power plants are being built and put online in China at a staggering rate of one per week. Now consider that it takes over 600% more energy to produce a CFL than an incandescent bulb. With the power plants in China spewing out nearly 400% more mercury than the average American power plant, that's 2400% more mercury being put into the atmosphere when you compare a Chinese made CFL to an American made incandescent bulb. Now add the 4mg of mercury that's actually in the bulb itself. By comparison, since the introduction of 'scrubbers', coal-fired power plants in the United States contribute less than 1 percent of the total global mercury emissions. You can check the data at the U.S Dept of energy website at: fossil.energy.gov/powersystems/pollutioncontrols
- The pollution continues all the way to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Some of the massive container ships sailing from China have over 100,000 horsepower engines weighing over 2,300 tons. These engines are using low-grade ship bunker fuel containing up to 2,000 times the sulfur content of diesel fuel used in American automobiles.(27,000ppm vs. 15ppm) Marine heavy fuel oil is the residue of the world's oil refineries and is so thick that when cold it can be walked on. Research has shown that just one of these massive container ships can emit almost the same amount of cancer and asthma-causing chemicals as over 50 million cars. Although the EPA has begun regulating emissions from American ships, these regulations do not govern foreign-flagged vessels that account for over 90% of the ships that call on U.S. ports. Examine the EPA's own data at: http://www.epa.gov/oms/oceanvessels.htm
- CFL Contradictions from the EPA? CFL’s have gotten a free pass from the EPA– but then there are statements like this on the EPA website: "When lamps are broken, whether during storage, transport, disposal, or crushing, a substantial portion of the mercury contained in the lamp is released as mercury vapor. If the mercury vapor is not controlled or contained, it could be readily inhaled by anyone in the area and be hazardous to the health of those exposed individuals. Additionally, mercury released from broken lamps is persistent in the environment, where it can be chemically transformed to methyl mercury, which is more toxic than elemental mercury and which bioaccumulates up the food chain.
When lamps are disposed of in a landfill, rather than recycled, a substantial percentage of the lamps are broken and virtually all of the mercury contained in the lamps is released into the environment. In addition, lamps may be broken during collection, shipping, or handling." Is this the same EPA that just classified carbon, a fundamental for life as we know it, as a hazard to human health? Life is much simpler with incandescent light bulbs. All you have to do is throw them in the trash when they burn out. From the EPA: mercury vapors which are harmful to human and ecological health. Mercury-Containing Light Bulb (Lamp) Frequent Questions & Mercury Releases and Spills - A Package deal. Another environmental issue for those interested in green living: The environmental impact of the CFL bulbs does not end with the mercury and pollution issues. Take a look at the amount of plastic that is used to package a CFL bulb. It's way too much for a consumable product and will end up clogging our already crowded landfills. The simple biodegradable corrugated cardboard box that comes around a standard incandescent bulb gives it the most environmentally friendly packaging. Recycle those bulbs... save our landfills from mercury... but when they do happen to end up in the trash what about those large ballasts/ housing units made of thick long lasting plastic (non biodegrading) and thicker glass tubes (gotta keep those chemicals in!)taking up precious landfill space.
- Take a peek at 'Off Peak usage'. For those of you concerned about CO2 emissions, replacing your incandescent bulbs with CFLs might not have near the impact as you hoped. It all has to do with when the bulbs are being used. Examine the data from the electric power companies and you will see that off peak electric generation hours are normally sometime after 9:00 pm. This just happens to be when it gets dark outside and is when most residential lighting is used. The source of off-peak electrical power is more likely to be of what is considered to be 'green power', such as: Hydroelectric// Some of these plants can produce more power than they can sell during off peak hours.Wind turbines and nuclear power plants// It seems strange to classify the nuclear plants as 'green', but at least as far as CO2 emissions they are. These run without reduction 24 hours a day. Power companies will only increase the output of coal fired plants during peak demand hours.
- Government involvement: Anytime we have to be convinced a product is so good, and we have to use it by force – we should be wary. In 2007 Federal Legislators passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 -Under the law, incandescent bulbs - roughly, light bulbs currently less than 40 watts or more than 150 watts are effectively phased out between 2012 and 2014. (Bulbs outside this range are exempt from the ban. Also exempt are several classes of specialty lights, including appliance lamps, "rough service" bulbs, 3-way, colored lamps, and plant lights.)
- The Bottom Line: CFL or Incandescent ? The cost for a CFL is still around 10 times the cost of an incandescent.
- Think you should have the right to use the electricity you are paying for on the light bulb of your choice? so do these people: http://www.lightbulbchoice.com/
Most of the info above comes from http://www.squidoo.com/Incandescent?utm_campaign=lensmaster-discovery&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_source=bkobus unless otherwise tagged and/ or linked.
