The only good thing about energy saving light bulbs...

... apart from the obvious planet-saving feeling, is that they're actually quite crap at their core competency, light giving.

So in my bedroom, I have a hand-flocked purple chandelier, and it's got six energy saving lightbulbs, and when you turn it on of a winter's morning, it takes about ten minutes to "fire up" in quite a Dickensian-light sort of way.

Great when you're not quite ready to face the day. Crap if you want to see something, of course.