<p>Winter looms. I’m sitting under some dim fluorescent bulbs in a candelabra-base chandelier. Got them from IKEA. They are efficient, but they are too dim!</p>
<p>Anyone fallen in love with their candelabra-base efficient bulbs?</p>
<p>In return I offer one bulb tip - I placed halogen bulbs in my ceiling fan and haven’t had to change them in an age, whereas the normal bulbs were constantly burning out.</p>
<p>I can’t stand the quality of light from CFLs, so we only use them where it doesn’t matter much (basement, outdoor lights, etc.) When soft white GE bulbs are no longer made I will be very upset - there’s no better light bulb for reading.</p>
<p>I’m picky about the color of light - I like yellow or white tones better than the bluish tones of some CFL’s. If you shop at a lighting store, you can get whatever tone you want in a CFL by choosing based on the Kelvin temperature rating. I like the mid-range - around 3500 - but there are many options.</p>
<p>To find more bulb choices with a candelabra base, you could find the name for the base size somewhere on your current bulb and start googling around.</p>
<p>A sales guy at Lowes told me to get the CFL’s marked “daylight” and they’d be brighter and come on quicker and it has made a big difference for me. I’ve not looked into the differences between CFL’s, but apparently there are differences.</p>
<p>I recommend bulbs with the EPA Energy Star rating. They meet minimum requirements for lamp-up time and have better color.</p>