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This thread has prompted me to remember the last time I replaced a light bulb in my house. I started buying CFLs years ago, when they first started to come out, to replace one fixture at a time, or to have when an I-bulb (I'm just gonna start saying I-bulb... easier to type than incandescent) burned out. Right now, there are very few I-bulbs left in my house.
And you know what? It's been quite a while since I bought a bulb. Over a year, at least.
I used to buy about 4 I-bulbs a year to replace burned-out I-bulbs. (We also had I-bulbs supplied to us by local disabled veterans, which, although through our donations they were undoubtedly helping the veterans stay employed, were very poor quality, and often burned out within a year).
In the last two years, I think I've only bought 2 bulbs. And they were to replace among the last I-bulbs in the house, not any of the CFLs. So I am buying roughly 1 CFL for every 4 I-bulb I used to buy. Sure, even 1 CFL can cost the same as 3-4 I-bulbs, but... as I mentioned elsewhere... that's beer money. (And I bet you'll pay extra to avoid drinking cheap beer.)
Add to that the fact that 3-4 CFLs use the same amount of energy as 1 I-bulb, and the savings at the store, and on my E-bill, are clear.
And the reason this works is because I don't go to WallMart and buy the cheap bulbs they have on the end-caps up-front, sold by "Seelvinia (a subsidiary of Bubba Gump's Emporium in Shreveport)"... that's where you find the "unreliable" products. You go deep into the light bulb aisle, and buy bulbs from reputable names. Do a little online research... you can easily figure out whose bulbs to buy, and whose to pass on.
Bottom line: You want reliable? Be prepared to pay for it. But what the heck? It's only a light bulb.
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