TS and chemistry101.

Sorry to interrupt/meddle in your heated discussion, but I can't help feeling amused with both of your respective statements.
Just wanted to quickly clarify that the life span of a Light Bulb (specifically the Filament of a bulb) is directly correlated to its 'burning'/lighting efficiency. In other words, the more efficient (a.k.a brighter) the Light Bulb is, the shorter its life span will be as the Tungsten Filament would have burnt itself out.

To simplify the explanation I'll go ahead and use 2 different but similar analogies:
a) Imagine the Light Bulb as a Runner. The faster the Runner sprints, the quicker he/she loses energy. If the Runner paces him/herself, it is akin to a Marathon (energy is stretched over a period of time).
b) A more closely related analogy would be a Candle-stick. If the candle burns brighter, then it would use up its stored-energy (in this case the paraffin-wax) at a faster rate.

Now, when you compare a Light Bulb to an Air-Filter Element, it isn't really a logical comparison (as in apple to apple, etc.).
Why?
In Chemistry lesson# 101 (no pun intended ) an air-filter element has zero 'moving' parts (i.e. non-mechanical/electrical) whereas a Light Bulb is a circuit which translates energy from one form to another (i.e. Electrical to Light).

Anyways, I hope the above explanation is simple enough to digest. Otherwise, I'd highly recommend for you to scour the Internet and ask Uncle Google for help