My wife and I have an ongoing fight because she hates the color of the CFL’s. All I care about is that the use less electricity =($).
I knew my mercury facts were not acurate. Those figures were quoted on a talk radio show by someone who was promoting CFL’s. I think they were coparing them to your typical outside house thermometer. I was just trying to point out that the danger/fear was way overblown. The media loves to blow things like this out of proportion.
The problem I see with CFL’s is that they do not function well in cold temperatures.
I have 8’ flourescent lights in my unheated barn with a ballast that works down to 20 F. What do use to replace your outside post lamps ? I am tired of replacing those every 6 months. These lights(2) are on a photo sensative switch. They are on 10-12 hours everyday.
Our kitchen has overhead fluorescents. My wife bought some high-temp color lamps for it -- it was horrid, bright and blue. We replaced them with much lower color temp, and the light is decent.
I live in a very mild climate (Seattle area) and we don't have outside lights that are turned on very often, so I can't answer those questions very well. But you might want to check the origin of the lamps you're buying -- I don't have enough personal experience, but others say the Chinese-made lamps don't last as long. (Then again, they're not making them in the US anymore apparently...) A name-brand such as Sylvania or Phillips *might* be better.