In the main the compact fluorescent was very poor, but there are exceptions, I have a 13W folded fluorescent as a reading lamp where the tubes seem to last years and the output is as good as any LED lamp. A good fluorescent gives out around 95 lumen per watt and a good LED around 100 lumen per watt and they have around the same life, however there are a lot of bad fluorescent and LED lamps with typical fluorescent and LED replacements for tungsten i.e. BA22d or E27 base dropping to 60 lumen per watt, the two and four pin lamps and 2D range are still classed as compact fluorescent lamps, but they seem to work far better than the BA22d, E27 or E14 lamps.
If I talk about my house, the large living room had two pendent lamps 100W each, these were quickly changed to two fittings each with three bulbs at 40W or 60W aimed for 40W but some times used 60W. As the CFL came out I tried using 11W CFL but they stuck out of the shades and looked rotten. All lamps were BA22d base. When decorating we moved to 5 lamp units and Philips globe CFL at 8W each SES (E14) they to my mind cost a fortune but since claimed to last around 10 years it seemed a good idea. We also did the dining room with matching 3 lamp units.
Within the year lamps were failing, my wife found some cheap 8W CFL globe bulbs slightly larger so you could just see tip of bulb sticking out of the shade, swapped all the 6 lamps in dinning room, and used old bulbs as spares for living room, but by year two we had no spares left, LED's were just coming in, so as a test I bought some 1.6W lamps from lidi to test them in a standard lamp. However on getting home I found two more CFL had failed so put the two lamps in main lighting as a temporary measure until I could find some more globe bulbs, the candle bulb did stick out of the shade a little but did not look too bad, I was rather impressed, although only 1.6W they looked as bright as the CFL at 8W each, so keep my eye open for next time lidi had some in.
Next lot of bulbs from Lidi were 3W I got 8, I would have got 10 had they got them in stock, but they only had 8, on fitting instead of the few remaining 8W CFL the whole room seemed brighter than ever before, I was rather impressed, however although it seemed brighter, I now found I needed a reading lamp where I sat and so did my wife, she claimed the lights got dimmer soon after fitting, but I don't think so, I think the whiter light made us think they were brighter, but noted the camera was now unable to take pictures set to 100 ISO it now needed setting at 400 ISO so clearly not as much light. Latter when rewiring my mothers house we also used two 5 bulb lamps in living room which was smaller than ours, so put our 3 watt lamps in mothers house where we now live, and 5W lamps in our house.
So after some experiments we have moved for 2 x 100W tungsten, to 6 x 40W tungsten, to 10 x 8W CFL to 10 x 5W LED and the latter is the best light we have had in that room. Although if you look at the lumen output it is down from the CFL yet it looks far brighter. All lamps have base at the bottom and face up to white ceiling. With tungsten we noted the ceiling above the lights would yellow likely from the dust circulated due to heat from lights, with the LED lamps it is still white.
Elsewhere we have also used LED bulbs, unlike the tungsten the LED has no output in the direction of the base, so in many holders all light is directed down to carpet, I have noted as a result I have noted they work far better in a chandelier where the bulb faces up, rather than down. And although lumen should relate to how much light is given out it does not quite work that way, I have found with LED you can get away with a lower lumen output.
Other than some very cheap 12 volt spots of 0.58W from pound world non of the LED lamps I have fitted to date have failed, I no longer operate Ham Radio from home so don't know if the produce RF interference, I know the CFL did. I do have some fluorescents left, but most are now LED, in theory the tungsten lamp because it emitted inferred heat so gave a natural boost to heat in the room at night, is more economic than the LED, as it means you don't need programmable TRV's to boost heat in the evening, however the problem with them was their life, one was forever it seems renewing bulbs. By time one includes eTRV heads to the cost so you still get evening boost to heating, it is an expensive exercise moving to LED lights, but having instant light at flick of a switch, although those old Philips CFL globe bulbs which started red and slowly warmed up would not wake my wife on switch on, I in the main like the instant light of the LED.
Because we have some many things which switch out lights which need a small amount of current to flow to work them, and our switching devices in general don't have a neutral so that small current is the only option, each LED light bulb tends to have a small leakage, so fitting 10 lamps is in theory not as efficient as one big one, however the spread of using 10 x 5W instead of 2 x 25W actually means having more lamps works better.
If I return to that one large room which now has 50W of lighting, but started with 200W of lighting it seems LED v tungsten is not as good as
the charts show, it shows I should need 36W not 50W, I did try using 28W and it was just a little too dim to read, if the bulbs gave out the full 100 lumen per watt then yes 36W would be enough, however most are around 75 lumen per watt, which is not all bad, it does mean I can use a light switch which can be remotely controlled, can dim or can sense movement, if the bulb did give the full 100 lumen per watt these switches would not work.
