Well if by operate the same, you mean they use electricity to excite mercury vapor that's in an argon or neon gas, thus resulting in a plasma which produces an ultraviolet light, which causes any number of combinations of phosphors coatings to fluoresce, or light up, then yes, they all operate exactly the same.

Anyway I got curious and did a little search. Been thinking about switching to all fluoro in my veg chamber, and supplementing my HPS in the bud chamber with a couple-3 blue-geared fluoros. Thought I might share.

Fluorescent lamps:
- Blacklight
- Blacklight blue
- Sun
- Grow
- Germicidal
- Bug Zappers
- Electrodeless induction, which means there are no electrical connections inside the bulb. The energy is transferred from around and through the glass using electromagnetics.
- Cold-cathode fluorescent, used in scanners, LCD and TV displays
- Dimming
- Therapeutic
- High output
- Very high output
- Miniature
- Circline
- Outdoor

Compact Fluorescents (CFL):
- Spiral
- Triple Tube
- Standard
- Globe
- Flood
- Candelabra

Within those you have different:
- Phosphor combinations that use various blends of rare earth and metallic salts.
- Number of phosphor coatings.
- Gasses used to make the phosphor glow.
- Methods of creating a ballast: resistor, inductor, microwave, or capacitor for magnetic ballasts, transistor or semiconductor for electronic ballasts, or hybrids.
- Current; DC or AC
- Amount of flicker
- Amount of hum
- Start up methods: instant, preheated, rapid, cold, or programmed.
- Failure methods: emission mix, ballast electronics, phosphor efficiency drop off, or mercury absorption.
- Spectrums of color based on the Kelvin (K) scale.
- Watts.
- Lumens.
- Levels of mercury toxicity.
- Degrees of harmful ultraviolet light.
- Degrees of generated radio frequencies.
- Degrees of color faithfulness. Color relativity indexes (CRI).
- Fitting types
- Installation methods

I know I'm leaving a bunch of stuff out, but whatta ya want from a stoner. Feel free to add, comment, or rebut.
Opie Yutts Reviewed by Opie Yutts on . CFL Light Intensity Question... Does anyone know the optimum positioning of a CFL. What I mean is, does a CFL's light intensity radiate parallel to the bulb (inline with the coil) or perpendicular to the coil. I don't know exactly how to explain my question, but I do not know if I should align my bulbs so that they point at my plants, downward vertically, or if they should be aligned so that they point outward, horizontally. Does anyone know ? Rating: 5