OSDev.org

That is true, fluoro compact are not economic, and it's not because Im jerrylee quelque chose. I put fluoro compat in my garage in the same time normal bulb, the bulb lasted longer, the fluoro compact had defects, and as the summum of all this, I was disatisfied by the fluoro compact!!!
Also, fluoro compact last less longer than normal bulb, contain mercury and has embedder tranformer. What is ecological with that? I think it's just about fascist-corporatist-society we get around. But, who care?

Depending on the environment, they may be more efficient and they may last longer. They on the whole tend to last a lot longer and use a lot less. Mercury and the transformer can be recycled.

Since they don't outperform incandescent bulbs everywhere you should be allowed to choose, but some governments have taken to banning incandescent bulbs just for being. Leadership gone wrong can't be helped by proper technology.

They should have more lumens per watt.

1. incandescent
2. fluorescent
3. high intensity discharge
4. (forgot the name - uses microwaves to heat the bulb)

Then you have a iron or electronic ballast. You should find out if the ballast or the bulb failed?

Maybe a bird flew into it?

Just looking at a side by side comparison (I have both in my house, some mixed in same light fixture) I can say with high certainty they are brighter, cooler, and cheaper (when considering they last me 3 years on average and use less electricity).

Compact flouros are just fluorescent tubes in packaged to fit an incandescent light socket with the ballast in the base. I laugh at people who think compact flouros are somehow new technology and say they are not established and reliable.

You could get the same efficiency cheaper by buying the long tube version since they have been around longer and are produced in higher volumes at lower prices and you don't throw away a perfectly good ballast every time the tube dies.

You have to buy the sealed version if you want to use them outside or in a bathroom because the standard version has ventilation holes on the ballast and high voltage and any humidity in a little white box don't mix.

The amount of mercury inserted into a fluorescent tube is about as much as it takes to cover the period at the end of this sentence regardless of how big the tube is. You have more mercury in your amalgam (silver diluted in mercury) tooth filings than a lifetimes worth of compact floros. They also use it in neon lights which are basically fluorescent lights that produce visible light instead of producing uv light that reacts with a phosphorus white powder (its that white "paint" that lights up your house, the gas inside itself only produces uv "black" light).
Its basically electricity being conducted by a gas that becomes ionized and gives off radiation (light).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_e ... efficiency

You'll see from the table there that (while Wikipedia can't be considered proof of something) the number of lumens per watt is higher for a flouro light than for an incandescent light. Considering parts of both can be recycled (if we bother), then generally I see no reason why flouro's are any worse.