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by bendotc 5422 days ago
In my personal experience, the difference between a crappy CFL and a good CFL is huge. Low-end CFLs are dim, flickery, have a large warm-up period and often worse color. High-end CFLs, on the other hand, can have really nice quality light, good color balance (though I used whiter "full-spectrum" incandescent bulbs, so YMMV), and very little in the way of noticeable warm-up time.

You may still dislike CFLs and that's fine, but you may also have just been exposed to crappy ones.

1 comments

And it's important to mention that "high end" CFLs now cost about $1 each. You can get bulbs at Home Depot for $4 for a pack of four that turn on immediately, don't flicker, and are available in three color profiles including a warm one that looks very much like an incandescent.
Where LED is valuable for me is in the dimmable category. I have "dimmable" CFLs and they are terrible, they barely dim and if you lower the dimmer too far they either blink or go off entirely. CFLs are just not dimmable.
Where LED is valuable for me is the absence of mercury. I break an incandescent bulb in my home at least twice a year.
Also important to mention that it is non-trivial to tell the difference between a good, bad or indifferent CFL. Frankly, I'm not interested in doing a product comparison or multiple return trips on a lightbulb.