Are there any low consumption bulbs/brands that give total brightness straight away?

Had the same problem myself ... appears to be more of a problem with screw in bulbs for some reason. The one's I fitted in our conservatory lights take ages to 'warm up' and provide any worthwhile light. My wife returned back from our local Dunhelm store the other day with 10

Ash

Costco have some 23W Feit ones at the moment which I have found to be good, although I've only had them long enough to get to 3000 hours so far. This won't solve your issue of lower initial output though.

No, at least, not at anywhere near that light output (a 2W LED does, but it's equivalent to a 2W filament lamp unless you go for very expensive ones).

Conventional linear fluorescent tubes start off nearer to final light output, near enough that many people don't notice that they have a warm-up period too. (If you're striving for efficiency, they're also a little more efficient than CFL's, if used with electronic control gear.)

The bulbs in hall & landing are bayonet (no brand) and std flo tubes not suitable - looks like i'll have to put std 100 watt bulb back in until technology catches up with them :o)

Have you been to a B&Q store and had a look at their low energy lights ? The standard fluorescent light has come a long way and you can get low energy lights in all sorts of designs, shapes etc. I've also found our local B&Q to be every helpful and they may be able to point you in the right direction to a more suitable light.

Ash

To my eye Phillips low energy CFL's seem to achieve full brightness quicker than some other makes that I have installed, they also start off brighter than others, including Feit, which seem rather poor in this respect in my installations. They are 60w equiv Feit.