You can stop putting off buying fluorescent bulbs—they look better than ever.

Once upon a time, fluorescent lighting was reserved for basements and garages. Over the years, technology has improved the lights, making them brighter, whiter and less conspicuous.

Now, you can find fluorescent lights that will fit in with your living room decor, focus light on your favorite art and hang over your kitchen counter—without making your food look unappetizing.

This painting (right) by Michigan artist Jan Upp, hanging in Country Lines’ offices, was illuminated by a 50-watt halogen flood lamp (bottom) until it was replaced with a 16-watt Sylvania fluorescent flood lamp (top).

The halogen lamp is more focused, but the fluorescent light does a much better job of brightening the corner where the picture hangs. We got these bulbs at Lowe’s. You can find similar bulbs at Meijer’s, Home Depot, Target, Menard’s, and ACE and Tru-Value hardware stores. For best results, look for lamps that are classed as “bright white” or “daylight.” Fluorescent flood lamps encase the familiar twisty bulb in a flood lamp shell.

Sure, they cost more, but they also save a ton of money over their useful lifetime. A 16-watt fluorescent bulb that replaces a 65-watt incandescent light will save up to $39 in electricity costs over the course of its 8,000-hour life – that’s four times longer than the old bulb would last. So, over the lifespan of the fluorescent bulb, you would have bought four $1 incandescent bulbs, meaning the extra investment of $3 for the fluorescent light returned $36 in savings. Not a bad investment. If you burn your light for 5.5 hours a day for four years, you’ll save $9 a year until the lamp burns out. And that’s just one light. Multiply your savings by 10 or 20 lights and you can see the savings add up.

Of course, if you are using less electricity, that means less electricity has to be generated to meet your demands. If every house in the state converts most of their lighting to fluorescents, the demand on Michigan utilities will drop dramatically, delaying the need to build new power plants. And that’s one of the goals of the state’s 21st Century Electric Energy Plan.

And here’s a bonus: Since fluorescent lights generate less heat than incandescent bulbs, switching to fluorescents will reduce the amount of air conditioning needed in summer. (Don’t argue that incandescent bulbs will help with heat in the winter; there are much cheaper ways to heat your home.)