Touted energy savings associated with using energy efficient light bulbs in a domestic situation are generally a total nonsense. For the most part the heat output is not wasted. Lights are usually turned on after the sun has gone down and during a dull winter's day at the same time as heating is turned on. I use themostatically controlled heating. If my 1 kW+ of incandescent bulbs were replaced with CFLs then the heating would be working harder to make up the difference. It is time promoters of CFLs came clean with the real story. CFLs have their uses but the claimed saving to one's total energy use is a mischevious scam.
I have tried several brands of CFLs over about the past 10 years and nearly all have failed well short of the advertised life. Certainly not an economic proposition while they cost several times the cost of an incandescent bulb. The notable exception has been Philips CFLs and particularly the small 7 and 9 watt tubes that have a separate ballast.

I wanted to do my bit for the "environment" but I will not be buying more CFL's. The Ecobulb that I installed as a trial lasted only 4 months and has blown out. I was also disappointed with the "warm up" time. It is just too long.

So back to incandescents.

I have returned 3 Crompton GLS halogen 100 watt light bulbs after reading this report. The bulbs looked like they were producing the same amount of light as a 75 watt incandescent bulb . The power meter said they were using 77 watts.
A normal 100w incandescent produced more light than the Crompton GLS halogen 100W.

Please would Consumer Magazine comment on allegations made about energy saving light bulbs in the August 2008 issue of "Investigate" magazine, pp. 28 - 48. If the health and safety risks outlined in this major report regarding the use and disposal of CFL bulbs are true, then the risks appear to outweigh their advantages. Google "energy saver light bulbs", or see - http://issuu.com/iwishart/docs/invaug08/32
The web pages can be zoomed for easy reading. Alternatively, for an excerpt, see - http://briefingroom.typepad.com/the_briefing_room/2008/07/green-party-lea.html

Dead bulbs! The advice is to ask your local Council. Mine, the South Wairarapa District Council, says they don't know what to do with them. How many other Councils take the same position, so i wonder what's happening to them all. I know what happens to mine, unfortunately!

We had an interesting situation when we changed one type of CFL bulb for another brighter one. When switched off the bulb would flash every 20 seconds or so. THis didn't happen with the incandescent bulbs or older CFL.

Searching the web this seems a common issue relating to some current being induced in the wiring and only some bulbs exhibit it. Any idea on how to tell whether a bulb will do this?

Your review fails to comment on two of the most important issues regarding CFLs that I have observed - namely the time it takes them to reach a stable lighting level and the time it takes for them to switch on.

Up until now I have avoided CFLs for the above reasons based on experience. However, recently I have moved into a house that had energy saver lights(mainly U-tubes but a few CFLs) throughout the house. Most of these work OK but still do exhibit a warm up time as well as delayed triggering (up to about 0.5 sec). I recently discovered an Edison screw CFL globe that fitted the recessed incandescent fittings in my kitchen/family room (Crompton LightStar globe - 18W I think?) to replace the 8 75-100W incandescents. A good saving to my mind. These have a very fast warm up time (to my untrained eye a few seconds to reach a brightness that appears as good as the incandescents for working in the kitchen) but do take up to about 1-2 seconds to turn on after switching the light switch. I would appreciate comments on whether this is common in these kinds of bulbs or not.

The types of bulb you recommend are not the future. We as consumers should be pushing manufacturers to produce better (and cheaper) LED based lighting.