Old_Honky - 2:57 pm on Oct 23, 2010 (gmt 0)

I believe that if you have any form of central heating then incandescent lamps are not going to increase your overall energy consumption. Their contribution to heating the room increases the temperature then the thermostat turns of the gas, oil, or electric heating system. This fact has not been taken into account by the pro CFL lobby.

Add to that the fact that incandescents are brighter, and they start intermediately with no slow build up; then I am forced to conclude that they should be the preference of any rational civilisation. IMHO CFLs are a dead end technology, LEDs may be the answer but so far I have not seen an acceptable LED replacement lamp for the standard incandescent.