Compact Florescent Light Bulbs are everywhere. They use less energy and last longer. However, unlike traditional bulbs, the color spectrum with CFL's is all over the chart, and if you're not aware of the color options when making your purchase, you might wind up very unhappy.
Traditional Tungsten incandescent bulbs have a nice warm yellow glow that we're all very accustomed to. CFL's also come in this warm color, but you have to check the label to make sure you're getting the right ones, especially since the cost of CFL's are significantly more.
In the image above you'll see two very similar-looking CFL bulb options. Both are 75 Watt equivalent using between 18 and 20 Watts. If you look closer, you'll see a number with a K after it. The K stands for Kelvin which is a standard color temperature scale that measures colors in degrees of "Kelvin". You're looking for anything close to or under 3000K if you want to match regular Tungsten incandescent bulbs. Once the number goes up, you start getting into the green and blue colors that don't mix well indoors.
In this case, I went with CFL's rated at 2700K.
The example below is a Daylight balanced bulb that's rated at 6500K which is very blue. It looks great outdoors in daylight, but if you mix this blue color with a standard yellow incandescent bulb, you'll get a very ugly and obvious green. Scroll up and take another look at the first image. You can see the obvious difference between these two bulbs.
It really doesn't matter what color temperature CFL's you choose for your home, but if you choose one color, make everything that color. DON'T MIX!
:)
