I'm copying this from a post I made to TreeHugger.com (with some clarifications):
Additional notes: The latest 13W EcoSmart has not yet been tested by Consumer Reports. The Philips 12.5 watt bulb got a rating of 98, head and shoulders above every other bulb in the ratings. The Philips bulb was about $25 (apiece) at Home Depot and the EcoSmart bulbs were about $26 apiece. You have to hate CFL's as much as I do to not turn away at seeing these prices, but a year ago bulbs like these didn't exist at any price and even dim 30W equivalent LED bulbs cost much more. I also bought a dimmer and fanspeed control switch, which could not be used with the CFL's provided. These bulbs will have LOTS of light for this room, the stock CFL bulbs were only 40W equivalent. It will be nice to have lots of light when actually working on highly detailed projects, but otherwise a dimmer setting will be nice to have. I'm not so sure I like dimmers, though, as they make lots of electrical noise.
I bought the Hunter brand fan and light control switch to match my Hunter Highbury fan. A Lutron switch which was very similar cost a buck more and didn't look any better, in fact it was slightly smaller in back. I liked the legends (icons rather than words) on the Hunter better, the fact it shows fan speed positions (L, M, H) and has the light switch on the left (which will be intuitively closer to the door for me). One way the Lutron was obviously better for me was that it is a more white white, matching my interior, but both switches were nominally white (and not almond, etc). Reviews of the Highbury fan say the remote control receiver unit is unreliable, sometimes shuts on and off by itself. I'm thinking I won't even attach the remote control receiver, fortunately my electrician ran separate fan and light wires for a full control switch like the one I bought.
I also got a fancy Westinghouse 14" Bellizza ceiling medallion to go around the hole in the ceiling where the fan will attach. The hole as it exists now is pretty rough and the rough edge might otherwise be visible past the upper shroud. It bugs me that most ceiling fan upper shrounds cannot be sealed to the ceiling, they must be 2mm or so below to allow for fan movement. With the medallion, I could in theory put some weatherstripping on the inner edge to seal. I could not do that with the flat plate type medallions. I toyed with the idea of getting an even fancier 28" medallion, but it worried me I wold have to upset even more of the ceiling in order to attach it, and covering a wider ceiling span it might be prone to buzzing. The instructions call for using polyurethane glue to attach either medallion, I intend to use Quietglue Pro instead, along with setting screws.
I was going to buy three 12.5w Philips LED bulbs (60W incandescent equivalent) for my new workshop ceiling fan with lights, but when I got to Home Depot, I saw the EcoSmart 13w LED bulbs with slightly higher output, slightly better CRI (color rendering index), fully-enclosed-fixture capable (actually it says not for use in totally enclosed recessed fixtures, whereas the Philips says not for use in totally enclosed fixtures, FWIW, I don't need totally enclosed fixture capability, but Consumer Reports rating of the Philips as not suitable for Partial Enclosure worried me, what is a fan tulip fixture?) and color temperature of 5000K. I'm a fan of daylight lights when possible, and I thought the 5000K might come a bit closer, and that was my biggest concern. I know that 5000K from a light is not necessarily like actual daylight (you need D50 spectrum rating also, you can have 5000K which looks far cooler than actual daylight because of missing wavelength bands), but I thought it was worth a try. I got a Philips light for comparison, will do side-by-side in kitchen light before going into workshop which has high ceiling. Despite enclosed-fixture capability on the EcoSmart, I'm thinking of removing the fan's tulip glass pieces anyway for better ventilation and better lifespan; I would definitely do that for the Philips given the Consumer Reports rating, even though the Philips label doesn't specify it (Philips only says "Not for use in fully enclosed fixtures). I hate CFL's (compact fluorescent) like the ones that came with the fan; hazardous materials if broken, slow starting, usually non-dimmable, and they never last as long as advertised for me, usually ending in a puff of smoke and burned plastic.
Additional notes: The latest 13W EcoSmart has not yet been tested by Consumer Reports. The Philips 12.5 watt bulb got a rating of 98, head and shoulders above every other bulb in the ratings. The Philips bulb was about $25 (apiece) at Home Depot and the EcoSmart bulbs were about $26 apiece. You have to hate CFL's as much as I do to not turn away at seeing these prices, but a year ago bulbs like these didn't exist at any price and even dim 30W equivalent LED bulbs cost much more. I also bought a dimmer and fanspeed control switch, which could not be used with the CFL's provided. These bulbs will have LOTS of light for this room, the stock CFL bulbs were only 40W equivalent. It will be nice to have lots of light when actually working on highly detailed projects, but otherwise a dimmer setting will be nice to have. I'm not so sure I like dimmers, though, as they make lots of electrical noise.
I bought the Hunter brand fan and light control switch to match my Hunter Highbury fan. A Lutron switch which was very similar cost a buck more and didn't look any better, in fact it was slightly smaller in back. I liked the legends (icons rather than words) on the Hunter better, the fact it shows fan speed positions (L, M, H) and has the light switch on the left (which will be intuitively closer to the door for me). One way the Lutron was obviously better for me was that it is a more white white, matching my interior, but both switches were nominally white (and not almond, etc). Reviews of the Highbury fan say the remote control receiver unit is unreliable, sometimes shuts on and off by itself. I'm thinking I won't even attach the remote control receiver, fortunately my electrician ran separate fan and light wires for a full control switch like the one I bought.
I also got a fancy Westinghouse 14" Bellizza ceiling medallion to go around the hole in the ceiling where the fan will attach. The hole as it exists now is pretty rough and the rough edge might otherwise be visible past the upper shroud. It bugs me that most ceiling fan upper shrounds cannot be sealed to the ceiling, they must be 2mm or so below to allow for fan movement. With the medallion, I could in theory put some weatherstripping on the inner edge to seal. I could not do that with the flat plate type medallions. I toyed with the idea of getting an even fancier 28" medallion, but it worried me I wold have to upset even more of the ceiling in order to attach it, and covering a wider ceiling span it might be prone to buzzing. The instructions call for using polyurethane glue to attach either medallion, I intend to use Quietglue Pro instead, along with setting screws.
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