Are CFs still more efficient than say LED lights?
Very much so. LED's aren't much more efficient than incandescent, but since
they draw so little (and output so little) there are applications for them
in spot lighting and instrumentation where you don't need the omni
directional light of an incan.
As far as I know, the relatively low effiency only applies to the
"white" LEDs (which are sort of blue LED with a phosphor - like a
florescent light). The monochromatic LEDs are quite efficient,
especially if you hook them up intelligently (ie, use a current
regulator to drive a string of them, rather than wasting most of your
power in a current-limiting resistor, driving a single ~2V LED from a
12V source). Just hooking up 6 in series generally won't work, but 4-5
and a current regulator will work (or more for 24 or 48VDC). You can
also sneak about with driving them with pulses (from a 555) - there's
little noticable difference between a 30-40% on time and 100% on time
when the driving frequency is too fast for eyes to notice.
They may not be what you want to read by, but the super-bright red ones
make one heck of a nightlight, and adding some green or yellow makes
things quite workable for less-demading tasks.
They never (for all practical purposes) burn out, which is also an
advantage for some uses.