Future looks dim for incandescent bulbs (President Bush has said he will sign this nonsense)

The ones I got from Costco are Feit - relatively cheap $1.50 eact for the 100w equivalent how much do you pay for the GE’s?

They weren’t too bad. I got them in three packs at Wally World, and they were around $5-$6 for the pack at the time.

The biggest problem I've had is finding sockets, of all things. Every now and then I'm able to score a mother lode at a nickel a piece or thereabouts, but to buy them through normal channels, they're extremely difficult to fine, and astronomically expensive (I've found ONE seller that charges about $2.50 each or thereabouts. If I can find the URL I may place an order for some of the ones I don't have sockets for, i.e., some big CFL tubes with "in-line" pins.

For most of what I do, I use 13W or 26W 4-pin tubes. I've discovered a very nice "cheat" that I use with my electronic ballasts (I bought a huge carton of them for pennies a piece). They're designed for two 10-to-13W 4/pin bulbs, however, I discovered that they put out a high enough voltage to operate in "two-pin" mode, i.e., cold-cathode style, in which the heaters at each end are NOT warmed up, as they are in 4-pin mode. I use the two "outmost" lines for each tube, and connect one to each "end" on the tube, and it lights up instantly (quicker than when running in true 4-pin mode). Plus, I discovered that I could take the "outermost" line for each 13 watt tube, and connect them to a single 26 watt tube, and it works great.

I rebuilt a kitchen over-the-sink straight tube (single 15W fluorescent tube) light by removing the tube, the ballast (a linear type, i.e., a choke style), and installing an electronic ballast and two 14W "quad" tubes. MUCH brighter than before, much better quality light, and, seems to last a lot longer than the puny little straight tube it replaced.

I also built an array of 9W tubes over my workbench (bright, soft, even lighting, for fine detail work, such as camera repair). I have 14 of them all wired up to a single switch.

I constructed two light banks using 26 W quad tubes (one has, hmm... five or six? And the other has, IIRC, 24 of them). These are VERY bright affairs, basically a sheet of wood that blasts out a LOT of very bright light. I use them over tomato flats, and to keep my pepper plants alive over the winter (pepper is a perennial, and will turn into a bush after a few years, with a wood trunk).

Took me a while to learn the ropes. There are three main types of CFL tubes (this is not including the "integral ballast" type, i.e., the type you screw into a regular socket, which IMO are often the worst of all -- with some exceptions).

The three main types are 4-pin, 2-pin 2/starter, and 2-pin w/o starter.

The 4-pin has two pins going to each heater. The 2-pin 2/starter has one pin going to one heater, the other pin going to the other heater, and the two remaining heater lines strapped internally via the starter -- a mercury gas switch tube (that is separate from the mercury in the actual CFL tube) and a capacitor. When the bulb starts up, the mercury gas switch closes, and both heaters warm up. After the bulb "ignites" (the spark begins), there's enough draw through the bulb, so that there's NOT enough to keep the starter switch actuated, and it opens. These bulbs can be detected during operation by the rapid on/of flickering (and tinny clicking) as they go through the startup cycle. They are the easiest to use (less wiring and do not need electronic ballast, can be used with very cheap magnetic ballast, often found in screw-base adapters), but, they have the shortest lifespan.

I've converted many of them to either true 2-pin types or 4-pin types (dremel to the base, wire cutters to remove the starter components, and there ya go). Yes, I am a tinkerer and a cheapskate.

The true two-pin types do NOT have heaters, or (quite common I suspect) they use the heaters as cathode/anode rather than heaters. If your ballast provides a high enough voltage you do NOT need to preheat the tube to get it started.

Then there are the Evil Proprietary types (can you say "Lights of America"/MadeInChina?)

The U.S. is turning into a socialist state. The liberal media created this Global warming Hoax .And now they are using that hoax to control our lives and to ruin the economy , capitalism.

These moron politicians have no right to tell us and me what kind of light bulb I can buy and put in my home.

So now because of some socialist/liberal media hoax I have to buy a bulb that has mercury in it and if it breaks then I and my family will be exposed to mercury. These liberals/commies are insane. They have no right to tell us how to live our lives and since they are idiots they make us all buy potential mercury bombs.