I have a dozen or so 8 buck, 30 year old, with tubes, flourescents in my garage. I think in all that time, the only tube I ever had to replace was when my second daughter tried to show me how she spun a wooden rifle for majorettes. Hit a tube, broke it.
I hit Zero F, here. They take a while to brighten up in the middle of Winter, but NEVER fail to light. Case of 12 in the garage attic, and I have given away more than I have ever had to replace of my own. Hell, I am running out of them, and they are the OLD 40 watt, rather than the "green" 35 or so watt.
Once upon a time, I did have a ballast go out on one, went to an electrical supplier to buy a new one, price was 20 or more. "Hell, I only paid 8 bucks for the whole thing, WITH tubes." "Well, you probably have a made in Japan(the bogey man, then) product." No, it was made in the US of A. I replaced that fixture. That one was in the basement, in the laundry room, warm, so cold did not kill it. I bought another 8 buck fixture, with tubes, to replace it.
I don't know if you want to upgrade to 2 or 300 watt CFLs, but you CAN buy them, with Mogul base. 20 some bucks, each.
I take with a whole shaker of salt the advertised lifespan of CFL's. I have replaced probably a dozen of them in the past few years, and I don't think I have had to replace meny more incandescents in the same applications. End table lamps burn out about as often, base down. Bulkhead lights burn out about as quick as incandescents, base up.
Flourescent tubes last about forever.I gotta go buy a whole buncha incandescents before they outlaw them.
Cheers,
George
I gotta check my settings. Posted at 12:04 AM, Wednesday, post time is 4:00 PM, yesterday.