Originally Posted by chuck

I do not use CFL's in my home however as a buyer of many types of lamps for the school district I work for I have purchased them many times. There are two types of CFLs in use. One has a pin base that plugs into the lamp holder used mostly in commercial settings and then there is the screw in type used mostly in the home. Many of our schools have tried replacing the incadescent "can light" bulbs with CFL's. However, there is a high failure rate with these lamps because they are placed upside down in the ceiling. The heat is directed upward and heats the ballast until it fails. I found this to be true of all brands. Some burn out in a matter of months if not weeks. In several of the schools they have gone back to incadescents. In the home a table lamp is the proper application, however, the lighting is not the same. There are a few very good explinations within these posts to explain why the lighting is not a good.