I've been slowly replacing all the ancient bulbs in our house with compact fluorescents. They're not the best thing in the world, but traditional light bulbs are old and incredibly inefficient technology. The new bulbs work fine for me, and they last forever and save money overall.

Other than the dimmer issue, I don't know what the big deal is. They are a bit less forgiving as far as harshness is concerned, but they're pretty good.

Ideally, of course, there would be a better solution. LED?

I really do not like fluorescent lightbulbs (compact or not). I certainly hope they come up with something better if they plan to ban incandescent. I do know incandescent bulbs are inefficient. Fluorescent bulbs negatively affect my tinnitus, they can interfere with some electronics, and the light output color (?) is not so good.

I have a small LED reading light, way cool. There are some LED replacement lights available, but expensive.

Try the new ones. They are much better than the ones of just a year ago. They brighten slowly, about a minute to full brightness. But the light is even better than incandescent. Much softer and much less glare.

One 65 watt compact fluorescent in the ceiling gives the light of two 65 watt incandescent and consumes only 23 watts.

Less electricity and much less heat. If you have bad power with lots of brownouts they pay for themselves quickly.

Try it. They work. Save the planet, save money. What have you got to lose?

We are gradually moving to CF bulbs. They took a bit of getting used to, but I'm fine with them now. We have them in our lamps and in the bathroom fixtures above the sink. I actually like them better in the bathroom than incandescents.

I tried a CFL in my home office and like regular fluorescent lights, it trigged headaches. Regular fluorescent can make ADD symptoms worse too.

CF's have worked so well in my house I am surprised to learn they are not for everyone. Which shows how difficult solutions to Global Warming will be.

I got them primarily because they save money since I have LCUB power and frequent power fluctuations which eat incandescent light bulbs like candy. Prior to CF's I used 130 volt industrial bulbs.

I had no idea they caused headaches or distorted color. Maybe I found a good brand or just got lucky or just don't notice.

Moral of the story, once again Cali is just crazy.

Yes you can purchase dimmable CFL or standard tube FL. The ballast is the key. There are also ways to alter the frequency of the power so that the headache/seizure thing goes away but, that may be really expensive, I don't know.

I had an 11w CFL that I left on for about 13 years. It was still working when I moved out of the house. LED will become more and more common in the near futue. They have a pretty standard life of 100,000 hours (at which time they can be generally expected to work but at a light output of less than 70% of original). That is 25years if the light is on 40% of the time.

The California decision makes plenty of sense to me. Without such motivation, even those who consider themselves liberals will resist change. Only the true environmental progressives, seriously frugals, and tech geeks will adopt the new and sensible stuff.

CAFKIA

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It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
  - William G. McAdoo

Please stop with the "Cali" bit. The spouse's brother and sister live in northern CALIFORNIA - natives hate the "Cali" thing.

Also the "San Fran" deal. Locals simply call it "The City."

I will continue to use KnoxVegas in casual conversation.

:)

I will continue to use SoKno in my comments referring to South Knoxville.