Originally the two recessed lighting cans over my desk had held 75 watt incandescent floodlight bulbs, and they lit that corner of the room VERY well. Since it wasn't the original location of my desk they weren't used very much at first, and they lasted for years being turned on only once a week or so. But finally, after over a decade one of them burned out. That happened some time after my desk had been moved into the well-lighted corner, and wanting to be more energy-conscious (at my wife's urging) I changed BOTH bulbs, putting a 50-watt halogen bulb in one of the cans and a 19-watt fluorescent bulb in the other. I hadn't originally intended to compare the bulbs; my purpose was to have sufficient light from the halogen bulb while waiting for the fluorescent one to reach full brightness - let's face it; they may be called "instant on" bulbs, but we all know they are NOT!
I could stand the comparative dimness of the sole halogen bulb while waiting the 2 minutes it took for the output of the fluorescent to reach it's maximum, and once it had done so the lighting over my desk was every bit as satisfactory as the 150 watts of incandescent lighting had been - at a cost of only 69 watts to the environment. Of course, the cost of the bulbs was a different story entirely. The incandescent bulbs were a very cheap at around $3 each,
while the halogen bulb price was $11
while the halogen bulb price was $11 and the fluorescent was even higher at $12! 
Still, the halogen advertized a life of 2500 hours of use, and the fluorescent was much higher at "up to 10,000 hours", making it seem a bargain overall. The manufacturer even posted a lifetime price comparison over incandescent bulbs showing how you'd need 5 incandescent bulbs to last that same 10,000 hours and how they would use so much less electricity and at $.10 a kilowatt hour you would save $35-$50 over the life of the fluorescent bulb even though the initial cost was higher. So not only were you being green and saving the planet, you were saving less money while doing it as well! Who could resist a deal like that?!
Well, after 10 years of changing fluorescent bulbs in my (vaulted) kitchen ceiling, I was pretty sure that the much ballyhooed life of fluorescent bulbs was a myth - and now I have proof. The fluorescent bulb over my desk failed to light yesterday afternoon when I flipped the switch, and several switch cycles later I was convinced it had died for good. It's halogen partner, which had matched it's vaunted lifespan second for second - being on the same circuit - was still going strong with full output instantly and consistently upon demand. And no, this is not a dimmer controlled circuit, and yes, it was mounted base-up as specified in the instructions.
Now I know that a single bulb failing before it's cheaper partner doesn't constitute actual proof that fluorescent bulbs don't outlast other bulbs on average, but I was pretty much past believing that anyway before this happened. The fluorescent bulbs on the vanity mirror in the bathrooms of my home were the first to fail as well; the difference being that they were installed at slightly different times in different bathrooms. I couldn't very well put the fluorescent bulbs in a room with a dimmer circuit when the labels clearly specify not to, could I? I don't know if a dimmer circuit makes incandescent bulbs last longer, but of the original 8 fluorescent bulbs, only 2 are still functioning, while only one of the original incandescent bulbs has burned out.
So, while Kermit the Frog was right about fact that "It's not easy, being green", he left out the part about it not being cheap either.
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