The government forced the change, and mandated the phase out of incandescents. CFLs are a false economy. They divert the cost to other locations on the planet, and the energy savings is overstated. They make more sense in public/municipal facilities than they do in the house.
My living room is lit up with 4 bulbs that run from about 5:30pm to 11pm every day. Regular old bulbs would consume 400W.
5.5h * 0.4kw * 30 days = 66kwh
Power is about $0.10/kwh after fees and shit, so that would cost about $6.60 per month to run the living room lights with old bulbs. The CFL bulbs are 1/4 that, so about $1.65 per month. Saving $4.95 per month pays for itself very quickly, and that's just 1 room.
My bathroom is a better story. The fluorescent bulbs are equivalent to 200W regular per bulb, but you can't put 200W bulbs in a regular socket due to it being a fire hazard. Trying to get proper illumination with incandescent bulbs would require the bathroom to be rewired to allow for 4 bulbs instead of 2, but then that creates a problem where running a hair dryer would trip the breaker. This is why my condo's bathroom only has 2 light sockets.
This was taken into account in my parents' house, which was built in the 70s. The big bathroom does have 4 lights, but the power socket is for razors only. The small bathroom has 2 lights, but it has a regular socket that a hair dryer plugs into.
I'm curious to see how LED bulbs turn out. Can you imagine a 50W LED bulb? My bathroom would be as bright as the sun.
I recently bought a work light that has 2 500W halogen bulbs. Instead of heating the room with a heater, I can just turn that sucker on. It heats the room and it makes the room look like a nice sunny day.
