I agree with your observations.
No CFL made that claims “100W equivalent” is even close to the useful light output of a 100W incandescent. The lower wattages are even worse. You MUST plan to insert a bulb of higher wattage than the manufacturers claim. I have found that often I have to have two of these turned on where one incandescent would have sufficed.
They are a terrible item to use in such places as closets and other locations when the time per on/off cycle is low. Not only is the warm up time for them very significant to get up to even the measly output claimed, but there is a substantial decrease of bulb lifetime per cycle.
They are a total disaster when used in places that get cold: garage/ porch/ attic/ basement - you get hit five times as hard on the “warm up time” and one bulb is never useful where when you had been able to use one incandescent. My experience suggests that the lifetime gets hit even harder in places which are cool, and lifetime suffers the double whammy of cold start & short cycles.
I’ve kept track of their lifetime. Not once has CFL bulb achieved even close to the lifetime claimed - even when the light was kept on constantly.
I use them in several places in my house, but I believe that for most applications, incandescent bulbs are far better. I have many places in my home that I’ve never replaced an incandescent since they are on so seldom. Suggesting that people owning new houses replace a $0.40 bulb with a $3.00 bulb in many places throughout their home represents a ridiculous waste of resources.
We are living in the scam generation.
Do they use CFLs in Hybrid cars?
We’ve been using the things for about 7 years now, and I can’t really think of one thing to complain about. The savings we see are certainly not a hoax. By the way you can get the bulds at Costco for about half what they are most places.
My wife recently recommended them to a large family with a 5 bedroom house. Their electric bill was eating them up. After replacing all their bulbs their bill was cut almost in half.
Funny, the things seem to work OK in my garage, but then I live in the banana belt of NW Montana.
Also you should be trying 130volt incandecent bulbs - they will last approx. 3 times longer than 120volt bulbs.