Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs are those squiggly light bulbs people keep discussing, but the question is do they actually do anything to help you?

While the initial cost of these bulbs seems higher than your standard bulbs, you almost have to look at them as a long term investment.  As opposed to incandescent bulbs lasting only a few months, CFLs can last for several years without being changed.

Due to the configuration of these bulbs, they can provide the same amount of light as your traditional incandescent light bulbs, but at a fraction of the power consumption.  A 13 watt CFL is capable of producing the equivalent of a 60 watt standard bulb.  For instance, in my family room I have a ceiling fan unit with five bulb sockets, so where it used to take me 300 watts of lighting, it now takes only 65 watts for the same amount of light.

There is a higher initial investment, but within the next few years in the United States, it will be law that you must change to there bulbs.  The only drawback to them is that they due contain mercury vapor, which is poisonous, and there are special cleaning instructions you need to follow if you should happen to break one, so do be careful with them.  Even with this potential hazard, I am slowly changing all the light bulbs in my life over to these, and I have seen savings in the number of times I have to change bulbs, and in the amount I am spending on my electrical bill.  They are well worth the little bit of extra effort.