Yes your right, the more light the better. We just have no way of knowing exactly how much light you have if we only know the wattage. The luminosity of the bulbs will vary depending on the manufacturer. Unlike other bulb types, there is no direct wattage to lumen ratio for CFL. On average though, here are some vague measurements.
CFL's that are equivalent to _____ incandescent....
23 watt CFL - 100 watt equiv = 1600 lumens
30 watt CFL - 125 watt equiv = 2000 lumens
40 watt CFL - 200 watt equiv = 2650 lumens
55 watt CFL - 250 watt equiv = 3600 lumens
65 watt CFL - 300 watt equiv = 4000 lumens
Now remember these are SINGLE blulb measurments. So 3 30 watt CFL's would put out aprox. 6000 lumens and use 90 watts, But 4 23 watt CFL's would put out 6400 lumens and use 92 watts. There's an extra 400 lumens but only a 2 watt increase in power consumption. Two 65 watt CFL's put out 8000 lumens but use 130 watts! Choose your lights wisely, it will pay off. These numbers will not work for all CFL's, this is where the manufacturer comes into play. For an example, I have seen both 23 watt and 27 watt CFL's that have a 100 watt incandescent equivalent.
btw in-case your wondering what a lumen is, it's a measure of the perceived power of light.
The overall luminous efficiency (Lumen per Watt) of the most efficient fluorescent bulb, a electrodless lamp, is 100-120. That is followed by a T8 tube w/ electronic ballast, which is at 80-100. CFL's are the least efficient florescent bulbs with 9-26W CFL's ranging between 57-72.
