I was walking through the Home Depot recently and found the section on compact fluorescent light bulbs.  They had a nice variety, considering they are a store that does not specialize in anything.  I noticed some very nice pricing, which reminded me of all the times I would be talking to people on the phone here at Service Lighting and listening to them talk about bulbs like these.

“I bought a pack of eight bulbs for $10, but when I got them home, two bulbs didn’t work out of the package, and the light quality of the ones that did work was horrible.”  This represents the majority of feedback I personally experienced from customers here.  I was kind of surprised at first, since I could not figure out in my mind how a company could really mess this up.  I mean, you’re going through the trouble of making the bulb, shipping it accross the Atlantic Ocean, and marketing it, why not do it right? 

In the end, as in most things, you get what you pay for.  I cannot, in good concience, recommend buying the super cheap mega packs of CFL bulbs from your local Wal-Mart or Home Depot.  Stick with the best brand names, and you’re going to get long life bulbs, great, high quality color, and reliability.  Sylvania, Westinghouse, Philips, and GE are the top of the line.  TCP, EiKO, and Litetronics are lesser known brands I have personal experience with and I can vouch for their quality as well.  In my experience, I recommend avoiding the Feit brand name, as well as bulbs that have no brand name.  This is based on what I have heard many, many times working day-in and day-out at Service Lighting.

Compact Fluorescent twist bulbs are getting less expensive all the time, but don’t make the mistake of choosing a clearly inferior product that you may not be happy with at all.