Refering to the 'screw-in' CFL bulbs, nobody has mentioned the orientation of the base within the luminaire.
Years back, Phillips came out with the 'Earth Light' CFL, and the directions on that box read....burn base DOWN only. The recent 13 watt that was a give-away at the mall, does not seem to have any direct guidance (directions) on compatability.
The real fine print, on the inside of the box, in three languages mentions 'use in recessed fixtures will result in shorter bulb life'. Further down, 'base of unit is hot after operation'.
I saw quite a few of the early Earth lights' that suffered from discoloration of the base containing the ballast, and some with what appeared to be ballast failure and very dark brown plastic bases.
A side note on this subject was a discussion with an Architect relating to CFL fixtures. He spec'd CFL recess, but no brand name or model. The Ec installed regular H-7 cans with screw in CFL bulbs! I'm still waiting for a response from the H-7 mfg if this could be a listing issue. BTW, open trims I assume. This could just be an Arch/EC issue depending on the mfg info.
As KJay was alluding to, there may be an awful lot of degraded sockets from the CFLs in the future.
