I have several light fixtures in my house that will not accept CF bulbs. Some beautiful antiques that are absolutely irreplaceable. It will cost me hundreds of dollars to replace them all. Thanks George.
I've used CF bulbs, and still use them in some places where it makes sense. But when used in high on-off frequency circuits, they will burn out in about quarter of the time as an incandescent, and cost another fortune to replace them. I will therefore just leave the lights on, it will save me money in the long run, despite using more energy overall.
One thing people don't think of is that in the winter time it will save no energy at all. Every BTU that your light bulbs put out, is a BTU that your heater doesn't have to. So with CF's, you heater will have to make up for it. An incandescents put out a lot of BTU's.
I'd better start stocking up.
I cannot imagine businesses like hotels and country clubs, as well as householders, being will to replace thousands of chandeliers and sconces to use these bulbs. Can you imagine the expense of having to replace all the lamps in your house in the next four years? They can't be dimmed so can you imagine a hotel ballroom in full fluorescent glow. It will make all the wedding parties look just great. I have paid $15 for one and it lasted six months, not six years...and I replaced it with a 25-cent incandescent which lasted just about as long. I am thinking of clearing out a room and filling it with bulbs to last me for the rest of my life. Maybe Canada will export chandelier bulbs like they export good toilets.
Once people figure this out, it may be a big enough election issue to switch Congress in hopes of its reversal.