Why is it so easy to put off replacing familiar incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lighting (CFL)? We know that CFLs flicker, hum, make you look blue and cost more - yet none of this is any longer true.

A CFL
- Uses 75 percent less energy than an incandescent

- Produces 70 percent less heat. About 1/10 th of an incandescent bulb's energy produces light, wasting the rest on heat (increasing home cooling costs.)

- Saves at least $30 in energy costs over each bulb's lifetime

- Typically burns 5,000-8,000 hours, compared to 500 to 2,000 hours for incandescents. A CFL bulb lit for 5 hours a day pays for itself in aboutthree months.

Shoppers love bargains, but in this case cheaper and off-brands won't give you your money's worth.

Energy Star rated bulbs abide by strict standards for quality and energy efficiency. Their warranties may actually give you what you thought you were buying - bulbs that last up to10 times longer than incandescents.

Wattage conversions are on the box. CFL wattage is about 1/3 of an incandescent bulb's, so an 18- to 20-watt CFL replaces a 60-watt incandescent.

Lights turned on some 20 times a day will not last long, so CFLs make little sense in fixtures rarely used.

For special lights, like dimmer, three-way or outdoor look for specifically designed bulbs. None are recommended for recessed or enclosed fixtures.

Choose "warm" or "soft" CFLs for customary yellowish home lighting.

Neutral is fine in offices and stores.

"Cool" blue tint is good for task lighting.

All bulbs should be disposed of as household hazardous waste-incandescents for their small amount of lead and CFLs for their small amount of mercury. Wipe up broken bulb shards with a damp paper towel and put it all into a plastic bag for the next time you take household hazardous wastes to Rooney Road.

Manual thermostats can contain some 3,000 milligrams mercury, compared with 5 milligrams in a CFL. A coal- burning power plant emitsfour times more mercury to produce the electricity to light an incandescent bulb than it takes to produce a CFL.

The U.S. Energy Star program estimates that if every American home replaced one incandescent bulb with a CFL, it would cut greenhouse gases equal to emissions from 800,000 cars. The ease of responding to that challenge is hard to beat.