I think a lot of CFL lifetime depends on the quality of your electricity. In my last place, I had some that lasted 8 years including some high-usage lights like

I think a lot of CFL lifetime depends on the quality of your electricity. In my last place, I had some that lasted 8 years including some high-usage lights like in the livingroom that saw at least 3 - 5 hours of daily use. Though I always purchased name-brand bulbs, never the cheap generic brands. I left them all behind when I moved so those are the longest lived ones I have experience with, in my new house, I have mostly LED's with a few CFL's and they're up to around 5 years old... I like the light from LED's better or I'd have more CFL's around. Failures have been rare, but I have pretty clean power, few power outages and practically no thunderstorms in the area.