They don’t last any longer then incendescents. They are an environmental nightmare. They are expensive. You can’t dim the fool things.
LEDs work much better.
Nonsense, CFLs on average use will last for 5 years, vs around 1 for a incendescent.
Mercury in CFL Bulbs
The average CFL bulb manufactured today contains 4mg of mercury. It is an essential part of CFLs without which we would not have such energy-efficient light bulbs. Although it is anything but optimal to have such a toxic material used in the manufacture of a green product, this is no reason not to replace all incandescent bulbs with CFL bulbs at home and in the office.
Why? Because coal-fired power stations emit mercury - and during the average 5 year life of a CFL bulb the electricity generated to power it will have lead to smokestack emissions into the atmosphere of 2.4mg of mercury. Over the same 5 year period the electricity consumed by incandescent bulbs will result in 10mg of emissions. Therefore, even if you factor in the 4mg of mercury contained in the CFL bulb itself, the CFL is still a net winner.
CFL’s last way longer. 4 of them can be bought for $7. You can buy dimmable ones. They operate on 1/4 of the wattage of an incandescent to produce the same lumens.