To CFL or not to CFL?

According to the ACEEE, lighting consumes 5-10% of the total energy for the average American home. While this is a nominal amount, governments and environmental groups around the world are urging people to switch to compact florescent lights (CFLs). After some searching, they seem to be surrounded by uncertainty. CFLs last longer and use much less energy during operation, but they contain toxic components and require substantially more energy to create. As of today, they're also very costly to recycle. The cost benefit to the consumer seems clear, but the overall impact of this product is murky. Here are a few common-sense suggestions for reducing your home's lighting energy consumption:

1. Open the curtains, blinds, shades or whatever else you might call them. Vampires excluded.
   
2. Get yourself into the habit of always turning off the lights as you leave a room. Not only will this break you of the wasteful habit of leaving the lights unnecessarily, it will strengthen your fingers... for faster typing speeds, of course.
3. Wait until your incandescent bulbs burn out before replacing them with CFLs.
   
4. Install a Parans system which uses solar collectors and fiber optic cables to route sunlight to interior rooms.

Despite my non-confidence about CFLs, I decided to install one CFL in my apartment. I spent extra money to get a 3-way bulb which approximates to 30, 75 and 100 watts. It illuminates quickly, runs much cooler than a standard incandescent bulb (which, by the way, converts 90% of the electricity into heat, not light), and casts an acceptable color of light. I'll wait until my other bulbs burn out, and see what options are available then. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the still-working incandescent lamp...

Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Compact-Flourescent-Bulb.jpg