Sylvania 29490 23-Watt CFL Mini Twist, Soft White, 6 Pack

Comment: About a week ago I decided to finally give a CFL a try. After all, we will soon no longer be allowed to purchase incandescent bulbs. I went to the store and picked one out (why buy a 6-pack if I don't know if I'll like it). It was a Sylvania 23-watt bulb that was claimed to last 10,000 hours and produce the same number of lumens as a standard 100-watt light bulb. I carefully thought this through--in my application it would be burning 7 hours a day and would save about 1 penny per hour in electricity. This meant that the $5.00 (plus tax) bulb need last fewer than 600 hours to pay for itself. Free light bulbs! Why is legislation required to force people to save money? It made no sense to me. The only drawback I could see was that it contained mercury--about four milligrams (although in government documents this four milligrams magically becomes 0.6 mg when the bulb is landfilled).

When I arrived home from the store that evening I marked the date on the base of the bulb (1/4/10) and smugly replaced the 75-watt bulb with the new, money-saving one. When it finally burned out (in about four years) I would be able to congratulate myself on how much money I had saved. When I turned the bulb on it took a second to light up (not bad) and had a very harsh white light (not good--but I can live with it).

On the morning of January 8th, 2010, I arose at my usual hour (4 AM) and turned on the light. For some reason it only gave half of its usual illumination. It was a cold morning (60 degrees in the bedroom); perhaps it simply needed to warm up. Minutes later, with a popping noise, it expired. The bulb had given 24 hours of service. Is this is why they haven't caught on?

Comment: These bulbs work great and last a long time. The only negative is they don't seem to make it through shipping too well; they are fragile. I had to order twice due to bulb breakage. The price is right and you're saving energy at the same time. I've changed all my incandescents to flourescents.

Comment: Recently received bulbs and they want a review already. They are still in their packages waiting for there moment to shine.
[can't send review witout star rating] 5 stars for cuteness

Comment: These bulbs are great this is the second time I've ordered CFL bulbs and haven't been dissappointed yet.

Comment: These are described as "Soft White". For every other seller this means 2700k. For this seller this apparently means the harsh and glaring 3000k spectrum that everyone hates. Won't purchase again. They should be described as sunlight or natural light spectrum.