I've also noticed that the newer CFLs do pretty good in the cold, but the older ones have problems. I replaced the cannister CFLs I had in my kitchen (look like little spotlights) with regular ones, and they work great. The ones made for the application took about 5 minutes to warm up, the newer coily ones I replaced them with light instantly and provide enough light that I unscrewed 3 of the 6 bulbs. With the spotlights I needed all 6 to not get as much light as I have now.
And, I've got a 100 watt equivalent CFL in my droplight in the garage. When I was using incandescents I'd break 4-5 a day when working in the garage, and would constantly burn myself in tight quarters. With the CFL, no burn problems, plenty of light except on the coldest days (when I don't work outside anyway) AND over the last 4 years I've only had to replace the bulb once, and that's with the droplight being dropped several times from waist to shoulder height. With the incandescent, it would blow out if you just looked at it funny, forget about dropping it. [ Parent ]
Leaving the scene (and ventilating) the scene of the crime for a while probably minimises the risk from that...
Considering that we played with liquid Mercury at school I cannot get that worked up about it, though ready-vapourised stuff is probably less clever.
Rgds
Damon[ Parent ]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7172662.stm
