The New York Times, from January 10th (free registration may be required), has a very good article on the various kinds of bulbs out there today. It did some "in the flesh" testing of various brands of CFLs, LEDs and the new Halogena Energy Saving bulbs from Philips.
We have about 14 Greenlite R40 dimmable floods in our home and they have always performed very well, with warm, 3000K light and effortless dimming in conventional, sealed cans. However, they can be hard to find locally, so the web is the best choice for those CFLs. As for the Philips Halogena bulbs, they are a fairly new product and save 30% over incandescent bulbs because they use a lower wattage for equivalent lumens. If CFLs are anathema to you, I suggest that you check those out. They come in R30 and R40 flood sizes, as well as the regular A bulb size. Just be sure that you get the ones that say Energy Saving on the package, as they make regular halogens with the same Halogena name.
