Not exactly a light-bulb moment

I have light-bulb rage.  How can they be described as 'energy saving' when they cost 4 times as much and last less than half as long?

I've just been to Homebase to buy another load to replace the ones I recently bought that have failed already; it only seems a few months since I was last up a ladder changing them all.


I do not begrudge the need to save energy.  However, my lights are designed to take decorative candle bulbs, not clumsy fluorescent coils and since the lights are dimmable, I'm doubly screwed; or in some cases bayoneted; either way is equally as painful. 
So I am now forced to buy Halogen bulbs at around £2.50 each, which claim to last either 1000 or 2000 hours, depending on the brand, instead of the old incandescent kind that were about 8 for a fiver and seemed to last forever.


1000 hours is hopeless; assuming I get 1000 hours, which is questionable.  At 5 hours a day, that's only 200 days and between the living room and the hallway I need 24 of the little devils.  So that's about £60 worth of bulbs every 6 months or so.


And to add insult to injury; Homebase did not have any of the right wattage with the right fitting; so we are down to our last 2 bulbs in the living-room-ceiling light...


I suppose the effect is what an interior designer might describe as 'romantic'.