We bought some compact fluorescent light bulbs a couple months ago at our annual Living Green Expo. We put 2 of them in our son's room and for a couple months they drove me CRAZY! They were so dim and flickered so much that I felt like it was a strobe light. I don't remember what brand they were.
I took them out and put regular light bulbs back in and now I can finally see in his room again!
Can someone tell me if all compact fluorescent bulbs are like this or is there a great brand out there that you could recommend? Thanks!!

they certainly shouldn't flicker. as for being dim, it depends upon the wattage that you got, just as the light level for incandescent lights depend on wattage. basically, a cfl's wattage will be about 1/4 or 1/5 the wattage of an incandescent light to yield the same level of brightness. a 15 watt cfl is similar to a 60 watt incandescent, a 20 watt cfl is similar to a 75 watt flourescent, a 25 watt cfl is similar to a 100 watt incandescent, and so on..

I agree with Stonecrest. I use compact fluorescents for areas where the light stays on all the time or for areas where it is hard to change. For example, I have an "island" kitchen stove, and there are lights built into a range hood, behind frosted plastic, that can only be gotten to by unscrewing a metal panel.

I also have a combo cd-stand/floor lamp where the "shades" are made of translucent paper, and a regular bulb would have scorched the paper long before now.

I've never had the horrible flickering problem you described. I think you just got some "lemons."

I use compact flourescents in all my fixtures. some are different colored light than others, but none of them flicker...
they last SO much longer than incandescents...

I have those types of lights in every room in the house. Put some in 3 years ago I think, and only 1 burnt out (defective). None of them flickered or anything; in fact, had to remove some of them (in multi-light fixtures) because they were brighter than the normal lights.

They also run cooler for the same light output. So if you have a fixture that says maximum size bulb is 60 watts, you can put a flourescent that is rated at 100 watts equivalent, and of course uses only 20 watts. At 20 watts, it produces only 1/3 the heat of a 60 watt bulb. Thus you can get more light, without putting in a newer, higher-wattage-rated fixture. Actually, you can put up to a 60 watt-drawing fluorescent, which means it produces about the same light as a 240 watt incandescent. Wowee!!

I prefer to use shoplights -- with either 2 T12 40-watt 4-foot tubes, or to to put industrial electronic ballasts to replace the original ballasts in (old) shoplights -- these require T8 tubes. I put 2 25 watt t8 tubes in there, instead of the old 35-40 watt t12 tubes -- and get more light for less wattage, plus totally-instant-on. The industrial electronic ballasts' only problem is more interference with TV and radio reception. But I haven't had a problem with them. They are absolutely quiet, and never flicker. The bulb just goes dimn when it wears out, instead of flickering as it wears out. The electronic ballast, unlike the orig ballast, maintains the same light output from the bulb, even when the voltage goes down (say you plug in an electric heater, which will cause a drop). it can drop from about 120 to 105 -- and you'll still have the same light output! The old ballasts with the T12 bulb would get quite dimn at this voltage. Difference is even worse than with incandescents.

yep, the T8's fit in the same socket as the T12's

The electronic ballasts are ligher in weight too, than the original large-transformer ballasts that come in "shop lights"

I get designer chains to hang my shoplights from , instead of using the chains that come with them. The ballasta last about 4 years. The bulbs last about 2 years. They are not expensive, tho they are more expensive than the $0.99 T12's

What flickers are quartz halogen bulbs, if run them on AC. You can see the 60 hertz!!!! I guess the filaments stop glowing when the juice drops down near zero, while old fashioned tungsten-air bulbs, the tungsten filament continues glowing after the juice drops. Only good quartz-halogen is a DC quartz halogen.