Incandescents do release less heat than regular bulbs do, but I don't consider this environmentally friendly. I read an article in the New York Times a few months ago describing the problems associated with disposing these bulbs. Apparently they contain Mercury which can release toxins into the water supplies if they're buried at the dump. Being that Mercury stays in the environment for a long time, we might just be setting ourselves up for a mess. And there really isn't a truly environmentally friendly way to throw out these bulbs once they burn out.

The energy saving I believe aren't worth the irreversible damage this causes the environment, not to mention to our own health.

I find it especially ironic that the "green revolution" has become a hazard for the environment itself. The mercury content of one broken lightbulb can ruin a homes environment. If you vacuum up a broken CFL, it will turn the mercury into a gas and spread it all over your house. Not only does mercury stay in the environment for a long time, but it's also one of the most poisonous substances on Earth. One lightbulb contains 5 milligrams of mercury, but that's enough to poison 6,000 gallons of water. 300 million CFL's were sold last year alone and several states and countries have banned incandescents, including California, Canada and the European Union. The US is well on its way towards adopting the same measures. Folks we're talking about a massive environmental problem here.

We are creating a huge health and environmental problem here and, besides a few articles in the printed press we hear nothing about this. The disposal of light bulbs are going to create massive contamination of trash cans, garbage trucks, and disposal sites, which as mentioned before poses a huge risk to our groundwater drinking supplies. Burning trash with CFL's in them will release toxic clouds of mercury into the atmosphere, thus poisoning our air as well. Cleaning up these dumps of excess mercury will likely take billions of dollars

And all of this for what? The environmentalist movement has taken on a singular focus on reducing CO2 emissions while ignoring or even creating other environmental problems in this pursuit. While I believe that CO2 emissions are creating some long term warming of the environment, I don't believe the doom-and-gloom scenarios that some like Al Gore paint, nor do I agree with their solutions, which amount to economic and technological austerity in the goal to POSSIBLY reduce the planet's temperature. Even the best intentions can create the worst of outcomes.

They last so much longer.

works great

it saves A LOT of money on the power bill! but you pay more for the actual bulb

these may be more expenzive but they last longer and cut down on the electricity use. it pays for itself overtime!

all ready done

I don't like the idea of all that mercury in flourescent bulbs in the Hunnic Yurt.

Haven't yet but am thinking about it. They sure are pricey though

Maybe I'd use these in areas where good lighting is not essential.  All the ones I've seen are not as bright as incandescents, and seem to cast disorienting multiple shadows.

At my age, I start getting nervous about entropy if I have trouble seeing things.

I tried buying some of these bulbs but they're just not as bright as the traditional, incandescent ones.

I suppose it's a good idea, but they do look kind of weird. The worst part about them is that most light fixtures were designed with regular lightbulbs in mind. So when I put four of these things in the light fixture in my apartment, it was way too bright. So now I have three empty light sockets and one bulb. It's the right amount of light, but it looks  like I'm too lazy to put in new light bulbs.

It's taken over two years, but I've replaced every burnt-out bulb with those ugly-spiral things and indeed, the electric bill has gone down noticeably. . .

I just replaced all but one "regular" bulbs with these new CFLs that are supposed to be more environmentally-friendly (or, if nothing else, save a little bit of money on the energy bill).  It's still controversial so as to whether or not they are all that much better for the environment (they DO contain mercury, and thus requires special disposal).  They're not very "pretty" (I got those spiral ones), but it's not like I'm staring at my lightbulbs anyway.  A 9-watt bulb is supposed to be the equivalent of a 40-watt incandescent, and so far I haven't noticed too much of a difference in quailty at all.  

Time will tell if they'll save me any money, though.  I've switched ten bulbs; the only ones I couldn't change was the kitchen lights, which are already flourescents, and the touch lamp I have in the corner that does lighting at three different levels.  The lamp I got for it doesn't work.  Bummer.  Right now, it's about 10 cents per kWh, and I've used 885kWh in February. I'll put up an update to see what kind of energy I'm saving, if any, in the coming months.