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Wal-Mart Is Pushing Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
While we all know from reading the internets that Wal-Mart is irredeemably evil, the world's largest retailer has committed to get compact fluorescent lightbulbs into 100 million homes this year. CFLs are found in only 6% of households today. These energy-saving bulbs use 75% less electricity than incandescents and produce far less greenhouse gas to manufacture and use. Wal-Mart seems determined to use its marketing prowess to do what hasn't successfully been done in the CFL's 25-year history: to convince consumers to pay more upfront for large savings over the product's lifetime.
[blockquote]It's a great move by WalMart. This gets them great press with people calling them "not evil" on Slashdot and everything, and it cost them practically NOTHING.[/blockquote]Nope. These bulbs are a perfect fit for Walmart because they are evil. They give out a nice green glow that will appear when you take a photograph of a subject lit by them. Stay as far away from these as you can and stick with tungsten bulbs.
Maybe you're the Slashdotter whose post to the same effect convinced me 6 months ago to switch my whole house to CFLs. If so, thank you for an entire house full of bulbs that start out so dim you can hardly see by them and take around 5 minutes to get all the way on.
Thank you for the need to turn on my bathroom mirror lights before I get into the shower else I won't be able to see to shave afterward.
Thank you for, despite buying the "warmest" CFLs available, my house being lit now in a soul-crushing bluish hue with sharp, mean shadows.
Listen up folks: CFLs SUCK. Do not buy them for any other reason than environmental sentimentality. They won't change your electrical bill if you don't really have that many (and certainly not enough to offset their initial cost) and will make your house look like crap. Oh, and after all that money and trouble, you won't be able to convince your wife to let you switch back until the damned things die--which will be after you, since the flourescent hell you'll be living in will have driven you to suicide long before.
You didn't get my point at all. I wasn't talking about slight improvements.
Example: http://www.rewci.com/vercomfluorb.html
A 65 watt CF is going to be a lot brighter than a 100 watt incandescent, even after dimming with age. They are useful as a specialty application, where you have a limited fixture and need significantly more light.
I've got a couple hundred CF bulbs installed in my house. Yes, you read that right; the previous owner installed more lighting than is used for surgery in hospitals. My closets are more well lit than most whole houses. I don't notice if they lose some brightness; I just turn up the dimmer (many fixtures have dimmers and use expen$ive dimmable CF bulbs) or turn on additional lights. I've been here a year and a half and have only had one bulb fail -- the one in the bathroom fan fixture.
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.