I use them almost everywhere except outdoors. Outdoor flood bulbs are worthless especially in cold weather months when they never seem to warm up to full brightness and emit almost no light at all for several minutes. During the summer they are okay, but it would be too much of a hassle to climb to the second story of my home and rotate the lighting source twice a year.

1) The quality of these bulbs seem to be inconsistient... but I do admit they seem to be better lately.
a) I have had several bulbs fail way before their time not even coming close to stated longevity on occassion. Even recently a brand new bulb failed just a few hours after initial start up. (doesnt happen as often as it used to) Some of my first bulbs were SunBeam manufactured, they were the worst.
b) I have had bulbs coming from the same multipack emit different types of light (ie some yellow/warm light and some blue/cool light right from the same pack. I have had to switch bulbs to try and even out light from multilight fixtures so it doesnt look goofy.
c) Many have noisy ballasts, even new ones I get today. The buzzing sound can be irritating. Some quiet down after warm up, some dont.
d) Most bulbs emit a cold harsh blue light. In some of my multi bulb fixtures I mix in normal incandecents to soften this effect.
e) Because I slowly rotated in my CFL's, I really didnt notice a savings in electricity. I usually dont use much electricity anyway and what I use is diverse so I really didnt notice a savings. In other words I have to "believe" the wattage and power savings claims.

Which leads me to my question. . . CFL's still generate a lot of heat, how on earth can a 23W CFL only use 23 Watts when it generates a significant amount of light, plus some heat? Many are too hot to handle when they are on...

Anyone? I use CFL's and would recommend them for potential energy savings, just pointing out they are not flawless. . .

Thanks!
Prospector