A friend and colleague has told me that compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) that she has installed in her home are not lasting for the length of time that they are supposed to last. There are a couple of reasons why this may be.

First off, CFLs, unlike their incandescent counterparts, are delicate electronic instruments, with several times more parts inside than incandescent lights. While this does create the lower operating temperature that yields higher efficiency and generally longer life, it also makes them more susceptible to failures brought on by the environment where they are installed.

Generally speaking, I have personally had excellent luck with them, installed in lamps, overhead lights, outdoor lights, basement, attic… I occasionally talk about the first two CFLs I ever bought, which I purchased in 1994, both of which still burn brightly, and one of which is still in regular service (the other goes with me when I go to give a talk about the advantages of CFLs). Both have long outlasted their life expectancies.

Here are my suggestions for dealing with CFL failures:

• If it is within a short period of time, try returning it to the store for a replacement or refund. Like many things, they do have warranties.
• If you find that failures are chronic, try to determine whether it is one particular brand or one particular light fixture. If it is a particular fixture, go back to incandescent in that fixture; if it is a brand, stop using that brand (for this reason, I do not purchase Lights of America CFLs).
• If you find that failures are widespread and chronic, consider having the electrical system of your home checked out. They may be acting as a canary in a coal mine, and symptomatic of a bigger problem.
• Please recycle your CFLs properly.