Laura,

This is a tough issue. In most areas of the US, it is a prudent economic decision to take all of your incandescent bulbs out and replace them with either CFLs or LEDs. I'm just not a big fan of a government (especially one that is notorious for poor economic decisions) to mandate that consumers make this particular decision. I would think that a much better way to change behavior would be a subsidy for efficient products or a tax on consumption. This will send a better price signal and allow the consumers to make their purchasing decisions based on these new prices.

About 3 years ago I bought one of these CFL's, but I was disappointed with the result. The packaging said it gave off light equivalent to a 100 watt bulb, but clearly it did not. Then it burned out in a few months of low usage, even though the packaging claimed it would have very long life. And it cost over $12.

So now the prices have come down to about $6, and I tried again. The new one has not burned out yet, but once again the light it gives off is clearly lower than its supposed equivalent. I am not ready to spend the money to convert the whole house.

I have another concern. Standard fluorescent bulbs have a tendency to not light up when cold, and this tendency seems to be more pronounced as they age. I wonder how the new compacts work in the cold. Even in my unheated basement in the winter regular fluorescents don't want to light up.

You know, I have plenty of fixtures that those new bulbs just won't fit in. Those bulbs are a bit larger than a normal bulb and don't come in tiny, yet. I think I'd have to protest that bill, lest head out to the store to replace 10 lights, lamps, and fixtures. I think that that's a particularly good thing to try to change us all over to, but by making them cheaper than regular bulbs or something, to entice me to buy them, not by forcing me to buy them. Then again, California might not have much choice...remember the blackouts in the past few years, it's ironic, they need another nuclear or fossil fuel burning power plant or maybe there won't be any lights at all. :P

I personally do not mind if I am "forced" to use the spiral bulbs as long as the prices go down. I have been replacing the once in my home and as for the looks I do not really care (I am trying to save money), and every time I buy those bulbs I am very unhappy at the prices (they are very expensive). I do not worry about the looks, I worry about having to expend too much money ( and that is exactly why I am buying them, to save money on my electric bill).

Regarding the banning of the incandescent light bulb : You can not use a flourescent or any other non-incandescent type bulb with a dimmer switch. I for one, am unwilling to give up the use of dimmers in the rooms where I have them, and banning them, i.e. eliminating the freedom to choose them, is a further encroachment against our personal freedoms.

I live in California, and I'm really upset about this. I called my representative yesterday to ask him to vote against the bill if it ever gets to the floor, and the staffer was trying hard not to laugh at the idea that it might. Apparently Levine and his proposal are kind of the running gag in Sacramento right now. No one really wants to deal with all of the unintended consequences for legislating something when the potential rewards are so small and the potential for looking like crackpot bean-counters is so high.

If you believe the earth's warming trend is a problem then you should be running to the store to buy new bulbs whether the government tells you or not, even if they don't look good in fixtures.

California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine should go into a barn when the temperature is 15 degrees, turn on the light and …. wait until spring for the damn thing to actually give light. Obviously the astute Californian has never tried to use these lights in unheated areas. Their ability to give light is severely diminished by cold.
We can expect nonsense from a high school student writing an essay on the evils of the light bulb but, it is totally unacceptable from an adult who actually has power to legislate.
How about we mandate our legislatures to actually think before they come up with simplistic solutions for complex problems?

I'm a conservative Minnesotan. I believe we humans are having an effect on climate, but remain unconvinced of the scale, and don't know whether any change is for the good or bad.

I also believe there are a lot of chicken littles trying to loudly convince us that the world will end because of this. Their shrillness marginalizes them, and as a result I 'tune them out'.

However, the CF lights make sense to me, although the thought of legislating light bulb use is, to me, ridiculous.

I use quite a few CF bulbs now, even a couple of three ways. I am generally pleased, but I do note the 'extra beat' during switching, they are big, they are expensive, they can't be used in dimmer applications, and THEY CAN INTERFERE WITH INFRARED REMOTE CONTROLS.

In general, CF bulbs are a good idea. Use them wisely. I will continue to use them where I can.

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine plans to introduce the bill this week, saying the spiral light sources are so efficient that consumers should be forced to use them.

REPLY: More evidence of the insanity that is out there over this. Coming from more Government intervention. This is just as bad if not worse that the Effiel Tower dousing it's lights. Like it will matter. How absurd!

The last thing we need is more bureaucracy. We switched over to using them where we could because of the savings. If they get cheaper I think most people would consider them. We did learn tho' that the cheaper off brand was junk and worked very poorly. The name brand did much better and while there is a second hesitation we haven't had any real problems with the cold effecting the performance (cold here being down to about the 30s to 40s in the garage). The current drawbacks for us are size limitations and not being dimmer friendly. Maybe LEDs could fill in the lack in the future?

One problem I found with the CFL bulbs is that they flicker when put into a light fixture that's running on a dimmer switch. (Ceiling fans sometimes have the dimmer build in so you may not even know it's there.) I had to switch back to incandescent bulbs when the flickering really started to bother a close friend. He said he has had seizure-like responses to rapidly blinking lights in the past and was a fraind the flickering in the CFLs might trigger another.