If you want them to last, buy them from an electrical supply house. Buying at a discount from a box store or internet supplier will cost you more in the long run.

Are there specific well known supply houses? (can you name some)? Why will they last longer compared to box stores/internet suppliers? Thanks.

I get everything from 1000bulbs.com these days.

Electrical supply houses are local and in business to supply electricians so their products are the best they can find or they would be out of business. Big retail outlets buy the cheapest stuff they can find because you can't tell the difference in the store and if it fails you own it unless you saved the box and receipts and you are within the return period. I've had Home Depot devices fail in a week and nothing has lasted as long as claimed. It doesn't require any more effort to go to the professional electrical store and they will answer your questions accurately.

About once a year my electric provider sends us a through-the-mail deal for lightbulbs. They charge something like $5 shipping no matter how much you order, and their prices are CHEAP.

Big box. Bulbs I put in 23 years ago are still working.

I still buy bulbs by the case at a local electrical distributor. I'm not saving money initially with the purchase, but the few I've picked up at Home Depot have been very short lived.

I LOVE bulbamerica.com - tons of options, LEDs galore and they have good specs so that you know what you are getting - things like the degrees of spread are important to me, as is the warmth of the bulb - and you know what you are getting. Very pleased with their service.

Thank you to everyone's reply...will start checking out all my options. While on the bulb topic, any specific brands to stay away from vs more reliable?

The answer to your question changes with the changing design of lamps [manufacturers call light bulbs "lamps"] therefore it is best to ask the electrical supply house staff instead of guessing.

Avoid all CFL's; look for warm (2700K to 3000K, lower is warmer) LEDs that do not cast too harsh a shadow (most do and it can be disorienting). Many enclosed fixtures cannot use LEDs but some LED manufacturers say their lamps can be enclosed so that's another question for the supply house staff. And not all lamps can be dimmed.

I have found that every time I go to buy a lamp they are different so you can waste a lot of time looking for what you need at Home Depot and not be sure you have found the right one.

And then there are accent light fixtures that take line voltage GU10 or low voltage MR16 lamps.

Some people prefer the softer wider spread light from a PAR 20 lamp especially with a frosted face which are difficult to find.

Without knowing the fixture and where it is located it is impossible to tell you what lamp to use.

HERE is a good resource.

DH and I knocking off punch list to show house changed gazillion bulbs a couple of months ago throughout house. I swear they are burning out everywhere. They all came from Menards. NEVER again.

The light in my boys Panasonic shower vent lasted ten years. The new one burned out in a couple of months.

I never knew there was so much I didn't know about light bulbs! I only know that I feel like I always have at least 2 burned out somewhere. Even some of the LEDs (which are so ugly I only use them in my outdoor fixtures where you can't see the weird 'cone') have burned out. So much for long lasting. But now I know maybe they can't be enclosed! And I don't want the ugly mercury-filled CFLs in my house.

Time to start educating myself. Thanks to the OP for this question, and to the advice of all above.

I liked the good old days when you merely chose between 40, 60, or 100 watts and they were all the same.

I haven't gotten much into this yet but during my prelim visit with a lighting distributor they had mentioned they have been impressed with Phillips brand LED based on their quality and the light they cast.

I would think that brand would be an indication of quality. I too bought the Feit/off brand bulbs from Menards in the past and their quality is sporadic. The Sylvania brand has been more consistent for me.

Here's something not mentioned yet that might be the key to the impression that bulbs don't last as long as they used to. When buying LED, not only do we now need to learn about lumens, watt-equivalents, color ratings, and bases - but you have to look at rated service life. On some web sites, you can't even search by this feature. But it seems like it could make all the difference in your impression of the bulb. Here is one example. This bulb (Utilitech 9-Watt (60W Equivalent) 3000K A19 Medium Base (E-26) Warm White Indoor LED Bulb) has just a 5,000 hour rated service life. But this bulb (SYLVANIA 8.5-Watt (60W Equivalent) 2700K A19 Medium Base (E-26) Soft White Indoor LED Bulb) has an 11,000 hour rated service life.

It seems pretty basic, but it can be a factor and if you don't pay attention to it it might be why people have the impression that bulbs burn out more quickly. I guess it might be one way the manufacturers figured out how to get the cost of LEDs down.

Great advice & education- thank you to everyone for your comments.

We put in an extensive "lighting system" into both of our houses. Basically electronic dimmers everywhere with the ability to do "scenes" at the press of a button. The only reason I bring this up is that the lights "fade up" and "fade down" and I learned that this greatly extends the life of any regular type bulb. We were in our last house for almost ten years and I thing I replaced 3-4 bulbs total. I am so picky about dimming lights and light color I didn't really use any LED's inside - but used them outside. We have a lot of lights (over 150 individual lights in a 3K sqft home). We even did custom printed plates (link Here) for places where we had 4-6 switches in a row. Switches were these. Reading about lighting design is a lot of fun and interesting to boot.

In my current house, I'm slowly replacing my lights here with LEDs. Before I put it on the market, I'm taking the LEDs with me and replacing with whichever incandescent source is cheap. I'll need more for my new build, certainly.

With LEDs and CFLs you do have to look to see if they are "warm" or "cool" etc. And they won't work everywhere.