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I have a mixture of halogen and incandescent bulbs in one of my ceiling fans and the colors are so close you can't tell any difference.

Please move back to the original topic and drop the freon discussion.

Dave2 wrote: The house was built in the 80s, so no 2-wire circuits. The lights do flicker... We've got voltage meters on several circuits, and the (slow) fluctuations track pretty well with expected demand (i.e. the voltage is lower during the day in summer when all the ACs are on).

If voltage is not staying consistent, you may have an issue on the distribution transformer outside of your home. You should not see any major fluctuations (dimming of lights, etc) on your system other than individual circuits in the house if you apply a load like an iron or toaster coming on, and that should be just a momentary dimming then back to normal.

If you have aerial power lines see if your voltage fluctuates with the wind blowing. If underground and you see swings in the voltage, then it may be when your neighbors pull a load. If this is happening it could be related to a loose or improper earth ground a the transformer not keeping the phases balanced between sides. Call your electric distribution provider (Oncor, etc.) and ask them to check it out as these swings can cause all kinds of damage to your electronic and other electrical devices in the house.

Dave2 wrote:

TLE2 wrote:...that last significantly longer, use less electricity for the same light output.

CFLs die faster than incandescents in my house.

My in-laws house has issues with CFL's in the older section. The wiring there is older cloth braided 2-conductor (hot and neutral only) NM Romex. There is enough induced current in a switch leg that the bulbs will actually 'flash' periodically when the switch is off. This is caused by the capacitor used as a ballast being charged up and once it hits a peak it discharges and causes the bulb to flash. With 3-wire (hot, neutral and ground) the ground helps prevent the induced current and doesn't cause the issue. I was able to fix one of the rooms by switching the hot leg (the proper way it should be wired anyway) and replacing the switch. The other room has a ceiling fan and I didn't pull it, and a new switch didn't fix the issue. There is no issue with the halogens or LED bulbs, and no problem with CFL's in the newer parts of the home.

The halogen bulb is much cheaper than the CFL and only slightly higher presently than the current incandescent. The halogen bulbs also do a really good job of reproducing the current color temperature of the incandescent, so you don't get the off-color of the CFL or LED that come with some of them.

Here is a good comparison of the bulbs http://www.nrdc.org/energy/lightbulbs/f ... bguide.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;