We had an unpleasant experience lightbulb shopping recently. We often visit Turkey, where daylight-balance CF lights have been omnipresent for years - they give a very good light, more natural than incandescents and vastly better than fluorescent tubes. So when we found a UK supplier who was offering daylight balance CF lights, we ordered enough of them for the whole house from a UK mail-order supplier (Coopers of Stortford) assuming we'd get something similar.

BAD mistake. What we got were Chinese-made things (Memolux) whose spectrum is nothing like the Turkish ones - they have a hideous green tinge. Every room that has them as the main light source looks like the set for a horror movie.

We were in Istanbul over the holidays and bought a new high-power CF spiral for the place that makes the biggest difference, but looks like we'll have to write off 100 quids' worth of the Chinese bulbs and go back to Turkey to get a rucksackful of replacements. I really can't live with the spectrum of any CFs you can buy in the UK.

The most natural fluorescent light I've ever seen was in a friend's attic marijuana farm 30 years ago. With a mix of standard, Gro-Lux and daylight-balance tubes totalling about a kilowatt in a small room lined with reflective foil, you could lie back among the waving fronds and think you were on a Caribbean beach.