LOL at your own jokes.
The fixtures in question come on automatically for about 60 seconds when someone passes from the house through to the garage. The fixtures use about 2 W each in standby, so yes, I have checked. As to the "low tech" solution of simply operating the light switches, people forget to turn them off, and spouses don't cotton to being called names or being scolded as is the custom in Slashdot comments. The motion detector is convenient and energy saving, and it is a sad day when the "geeks on Slashdot" deride such an approach.
Yes, halogens are a (pricey) answer, and I will probably use halogens if they are available, but my experience is that halogens are only marginally more efficient than incandescents (they are a type of incandescent). They may not be available with the new regs.
I have had 100% FL and CFL in the house, with the exception of 3 of these motion detector fixtures -- the outside of the door, the garage, and the stairway from the garage. The manufacturers recommended against CFLs in these fixtures. Two of them make a click as if there is a relay contact, the third works with an electronic switch like a dimmer, but there are warnings against CFLs in all three. No matter how many times you flip your LEDs on and off, you are not flipping them on 120 times a second with a triac, generating a waveform rich in harmonics that will fry the electronic ballast in an LED bulb not certified for this use.
The argument against the ban is it treats homeowners like primitive peoples who don't know where "babies come from" (never proven -- many alleged primitives have elaborate cultures and rather "conservative" moral standards). A home owner is said to be clueless as to where their electric bill comes from and can't be trusted to make decisions about whether to reserve incandescent light bulbs for light-duty use such as motion detectors, closet lights, lightly used rooms, and so on.
