As I'm considering solar, I've also been going through the "checklist" of things I can do to reduce my power consumption. While I've always "HATED" flourescent lighting, this is obviously something that would probably have a significant impact.

I believe there are now those compact flourescent lights that are similar in color to incandesent bulbs. Does anyone here have any personal recommendations on bulbs that might be more "incandesent like" and more to my liking?

Thanks in advance.

Check out http://www.1000bulbs.com. They have the widest variety of fluorescent bulbs that I've ever seen. Several items that I've never seen elsewhere are the R20 compact floods and curlies up to 55 watt size (equivalent to 200 watt incandescent). Dimmables, bug lights, 3.5" long minis. All of the bulbs I've gotten from them are still working after about 2 years. Just about all of the Home Depot specials have died during the same period.

Sam's Club, Costco (Price Club) have packs of the curly screw in fluorescents. about $11-13 US for between 4-8 bulbs (13wt, 23wt) multiply by about 4 for similar brightness of incandescent. I have Red-Green color weakness vision so I see no difference fluor vs incandescent.
About 15 months experience. definately don't work on dimmers, otherwise ok. about 24-30 in various parts of house including 2outside.

We have some Phillips and Sylvania compact flourescents that have been in daily service for nearly 10 years with no failures among these brands. Highly recommended.

A good source for the better brands is to find the globe-type flourescents on discount. It's an easy job to slice the plastic globe away and have a basic light bulb size.

Flourescents have made big improvements in color spectrum spread. I had the opportunity to talk technical to an engineer from Philips that worked on their compact flourescent bulbs and circuit designs. I was amazed at all the gas mixing combinations that are used to optimize different attributes from color spectrum to cold performance.

My acid test is in the morning when I get dressed whether I can tell my brown sock from my navy blue socks.