I agree in principle with the use of energy saving bulbs but an outright ban on conventional tungsten bulbs would be a bit misguided and jumping the gun. I have replaced almost all the bulbs in my house with CFLs but they are not practical for everywhere. Any lights that are turned on and off regularly or require dimming should not be replaced with CFL. While they may in principle last longer they dont if they are switched too often.
Another advantage not often mentioned is CFLs run much cooler than tungsten, so less skin burns and fewer fires from charred fittings or accidentally covered lampshades should also result.
As I often forget to turn off lights, I feel less guilty as you are recommended to leave them on.
We are very poorly served in this country with variety and quality of CFL. I have searched high and low to find a compact daylight variety to replace one for a reading lamp that died on me and what I found 3 yrs ago is just not available here.
CFLs are not the only answer, LED technology has leaped and bounded in the last very few years and I am sure these will eventually fill some of the gaps not served by CFL. But they are still way over priced here. High power LED torches can already replace conventional, I bought 3 in Asia for less than 2 euro each, the equivalent here is 40, yet they all come from China, so markup is the problem, not base manufacturing price.
So whatever the recommended replacement, make it affordable and people will follow.
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