Well, from what I have learned, spiral CFLs are better off as you said mounted vertically in a cone style fixture. It's not the most attractive as far as looks, but it would increase your light a bit. If you're gonna do that, don't bother with the reptile light, go to Home Depot and get a clip on shop light, they're like 5 bucks. I'd wait until you get your drop checker, and give the HC a little more time before you make any changes. Honestly you should be able to get it to spread with a 24 watt bulb... It might not be extremely compact, but it should spread. You can try painting the inside part of the reflector white to reflect some more light. I was gonna do that with my epoch light, just haven't got around to it yet.