I bought one of these to try it out instead of a normal halogen PAR30, and found it did a very good job. It still comes on bit dim, and takes about a minute to fully warm up, but once fully on it's difficult to tell the difference between this and a 50W halogen. It is probably a little less focused beam than the halogen.
2700K color is pretty much an exact match for the Philips halogen it replaced. It's good enough that I'm buying a dozen or so more. At less than twice the price of a halogen, these seem like a good deal. Note these are "long neck" bulbs and you'll need to adjust your recessed cans in that position.
I had also tried out a DuraBright 14W R30 bulb from the local hardware store, which was a buck less. I found that the color was much cooler (kind of greenish), the light less focused, and took longer to warm up. These are a much better alternative for the price.
UPDATE Feb 2013
I'm now finding that these bulbs are finally giving out. From Nov 2007 until Feb 2013 is about 5 years. That actually seems much longer than most fluorescent bulbs I've used, and the Philips Halogens are rated for 2 years, so on the cost of bulbs alone I'd say I'm ahead, plus the fact they use about 1/4th the energy. Time to order some more.
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