I saw on mythbusters recently that the recovery time for CFL's when turning on was like 23 seconds of continuous use.....so when you turn them on they are using the same energy as being on for 23 seconds. So to answer your question....no it doesn't affect the life of the bulb that much. Something else intresting about the test, the floro took the most time recovery time out of all the bulbs in the test. Hope that helps. :jointsmile: B