Much has been said here on CFL lifetimes.
Many die young.
Some don't.
Brand matters but "good brand" is no guarantee of longevity.

Here's a SINGLE  data point that is "fairly good" but not vastly beyond
what I have seen elsewhere here:

8W CFL Hall light
Runs amost always (24 hours most days)

Ran 12 August 2006 to about 31 December 2011.
5 years 4 months calendar time or about 47,000 hours - most of which would
have been on time.

This "rather" exceeds" the claimed typical operating times of 8000 hours.

8 Watt CFL
Philips

Labelled:

    Genie         V D5
    8W-220-240V~50~60Hz I=3D60 mA
    WarmWhite  420lm  53Lm/W
    ... standards stuff ...
    Made in China


_______________________

To make up for it, new unopened 24 Watt Philips Tornado that fell from a
high shelf as I was getting a new 5W CFL for the hall died on impact with 0
operating hours :-(.

For comparison, allowing a modest 4:1 CFL:incandescent light output, it
would have taken a 32 Watt incandescent bulb for similar light in the hall.
Say 25 Watts. Power savings over say 40,000 hours =3D (25-8)/ 1000 w/kW *
40,000 hr x $0.20 $/unit =3D $136. Add in the numerous incandescent bulbs
that would have died in that time and the CFL approaches savings of
$30/year for an 8 Watt bulb run 24/7.

If it had died in 1 year the savings would be similar - less fewer
incandescents and with the nowadays about $5 cost of the CFL a more
significant factor. Still > $25 / year.



Savings over incandescent:

Or about $3/Watt conservative savings wrt incandsecnt  run 24/7.with
electric energy at $0.20 / kWh


   Russell McMahon

_EE
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