In Jan. 2008 I had written a post that we had replaced most of our lights with the daylight type CFL bulb. Now 15 months later one has already burned out. This bulb is on most often, in a lamp that I use with all my sewing, reading, etc. It hasn't come close to the 5 year life expectancy that I think was an advertising point on the label.  

Edey

 Could it have been a defective bulb? I'd write to the manufacturer and complain.

We've replaced one so far in our bathroom but we've had issues with that fixture anyway.

Hmmm, I wonder if that "guarantee" is based on hours with an expected number of hours used each year....  I thought CFLs were supposed to have about 10,000 hours of life in them.  To have it go out in 15 months (if I remember correctly), you'd have to have it on about 21 hours a day.

Yeah, I'd write the company and complain.  If it happens a second time, then it's probably the fixture and not the bulbs, but the only way to find out is to put another CFL in the fixture.

 There is a new bulb in there now.  I'll wait and see what this new one does. Edey

We had the same thing happen to us. I am not sure exactly how old it was, as we switched over to CFLs in stages. But, the packaging said they would last 7-10 years, and these were two years old at the most. It was in a fixture with three other bulbs in a very seldom used room. So, I assume it was the fixture, but I don't know for sure. We're moving in a few months, so we have replaced them all with cheap o regular bulbs. I'm too cheap to leave the CFLs behind! Plus, the regular ones take better pictures for our listing. The CFLs make every thing look yellow.

  By any chance did you keep the packaging and your receipt?   When we started to switch, we bought 4 CFL bulbs from the same maker -- all had a 2 year guarantee.  1 burned out in a year, the other in about 18 months. I complained to the company each time, and they asked for a copy of my receipt. I sent the copy and they replaced the bulbs.  Bulb No. 3 burned out at oh, month 25, so I was out there.  Bulb No. 4 is still going strong.  All were in different fixtures, BTW.

     By all means, even if you don't have the receipt, complain -- they company might go ahead and replace it.  (oh, and they may ask if you had the bulb on a dimmer or timer -- guess that's a no-no.) 

 I have the receipt filed.  I'm not sure what I will do. I was writing more to let others know that these things aren't lasting 5 years, but being as CFL's are probably going to be the only thing to buy other than LED's, then we've been sold a false promise of the longevity of these bulbs. Right now I don't know if the lamp is at fault or the bulb. Edey

Edey:

being as CFL's are probably going to be the only thing to buy other than LED's, then we've been sold a false promise of the longevity of these bulbs

 

That's an even better reason to kick up a fuss. If we're going to have to pay high prices for lightbulbs, they'd better come through on their promises! 

Just for contrast, I have one in each of my porch lights (front and back door) and they've both been there for several years, burning all night and sometimes during the day, when it's dark enough that the light sensor turns the light on.  So maybe you did get a bad bulb.

I've also heard that in fixtures that are turned on and off a lot, and that are on for short periods of time, CFLs don't last as long as they do in fixtures where they stay on hours at a time.