Like Ryan in 2006, I too have some reservations about fluorescent lighting. But I like them in general; we’ve been swapping out our incandescent bulbs for CFLs whenever possible. One place it’s not possible is in our main living room lamp.
Dimmable CFLs do exist, but are a little hard to find. Okay – that’s a lie. They’re easy to find but the selection is miniscule. Our local Ace Hardware had none, and our Menards had generic brand dimmables only. So we tried them in our lamp, which uses a 3-way incandescent. And guess what? It sucks!
The bulb notes that it may not be compatible with “some” dimmers. Hey, thanks. Here’s what it does in response: it’ll brighten or dim slightly on its own. It might be fun for Halloween, but for day to day it’s annoying.
So we’re back to incandescent for the time being. It’s too bad, as I’d like to save a little energy… but I’d like to be able to read, too.
Posted in Everyday Life
Ryan February 6, 2009, 3:03 pm
I should note that my complaints were about my office lights. We’ve switched over almost entirely to CFLs at home (we don’t have any dimmers).
The whole mercury thing kinda sucks, though.