apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

That is excellent news as I recently came into 5 CFL's that need to be disposed of all at once. Maybe I can get some suggestions on what I'm doing wrong?

I live in an apartment in L.A. It's not a new building, my guess is that it was probably built in the 70s or 80s. In my kitchen and bedroom, the ceiling fixture holds three bulbs. When the incandescent bulbs burned out, I replaced them with 100 watt CFLs. One by one they burned out within a matter of days of putting them in. Right now I have one incandescent in each fixture casting a pretty dim light in the evenings. I'd like for it to be brighter, but don't want to use incandescents. I don't want to buy another pack of CFLs to have them burn out on me all at once again. Is there something to do with the wiring that could be causing this sudden burn out?

I had this happen also, the same day i put the bulb in it blew! I was so mad but it turned out my light had a short in it. I fixed it and had no more problems after that. i have had the same bulb in the same light for about 8 mo now. You also may have gotton a bad pkg of them- you might try returning them and trying again.

silly question, but it wasn't a ceiling fan was it?

No, it wasn't the ceiling fan though that makes me laugh to think of it. I had one incandescent bulb in the fixture in the kitchen which wasn't throwing enough light. So I added two fluorescent bulbs and they all blew, but the incandescent is still going strong. And then this happened in my bedroom too So basically I have crappy lighting in my kitchen and my bedroom. Doesn't matter as much in the bedroom since I tend to use task lighting more. But it does make cooking and cleaning in the kitchen a bit of a hassle since I spend so much time there.

I'm thinking bad bulbs? I hope so. That's an easier fix than trying to get my landlord to do something about the wiring.