More Lights

On Earth Day I mentioned that we now light our home with mostly compact fluorescent bulbs. I wanted to mention that there still seem to be quality differences between styles and manufacturers. We have been trying compact fluorescents for years, starting way back when they cost a king’s ransom and you could get rebate checks to help defray the cost. Most of those early bulbs were dreadful; oversized, dim and to borrow an indelicate phrase from the film “American Graffiti”, the color of the light was a cross between piss yellow and puke green! Blech!

What we have been using for the last couple of years are the compact fluorescent bulbs from IKEA. The ones we’ve had the best luck with are the “Sparsam”. I feel the ones with the frosted globe over the tubes give the light closest to an incandescent bulb. The drawback is that they do take a couple of moments to warm up. The Sparsam bulbs which have the tubes visible seem to click on faster and warm up a teensy bit faster. The quality of their light is quite close to an incandescent, but not quite as soft and warm as those with the frosted globes.

I grew up in a household where overhead lights were disliked and traditional fluorescent lights were deeply disliked. I really, truly hate traditional, overhead fluorescents. As the saying goes “I didn’t lick it up off the grass”! So for me to happily use and endorse these Sparsam compact fluorescents is high praise indeed!