Good Afternoon to All!
I built my home 4 years ago and I have been going thru light bulbs like crazy. I’ve had my electrician (strained relation) back but he has no answers. Some fixtures go thru bulbs faster than others. Recessed fixtures in the kitchen are going thru 3-4 bulbs a year. I have checked ground connections in the circuits as well as at the panel. Some circuits do not have the problem. Example is the master bath. Same bulbs installed at construction.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanx
Finn
Replies
faulty bulbs, vibration, heat, or voltage spikes.
Do you have electronic dimmers?
Have you tried compact flourescent bulbs.
Yes, I have installed dimmers at several locations and they do help with the bulb life.
Vibration is not an issue in the areas I'm having the problems.
I am not interested in the flourescent bulbs because of the type of light they throw.
Thanx for your reply.
Finn
Most likely defective or worn fixtures not an actual wiring problem. A very common problem with, but not exclusive to, cheap fixtures.
Origin of the problem goes something like this: Cheaper fixtures commonly have aluminum shells, the socket the bulb screws into. The bulbs, lamps in electrician, have an aluminum male 'Edison' thread. The two pieces of soft aluminum tend to bind and gall against each other. Because of this, and normal human tendencies, the bulbs get screwed in too tightly.
This is compounded by the fact that cheap fixtures tend to use plated steel center contacts. This, once compressed and heated a few times loses its ability to spring back and make a firm contact. As the contact becomes less effective the resistance rises and generates heat that further cooks the connection, tab and makes the aluminum bind more. This forcing ever more force to be used to get the bulb to work.
The concentration of heat at the base of the bulb and the force needed to get the contact at the bottom of the bulb to make torquing the glass to metal connection causes the seals to fail. Once air enters the globe the filament fails in seconds. Often a clue to this condition is that the globes tend to stick and break off when you try to remove them.
Higher quality fixtures and replacement sockets have chromed steel or brass shells and springy phosphor bronze center tabs. Lamps tend to screw in and out easily. Also the shell is supported by a sturdy porcelain, Bakelite, brass or steel body. Cheap units often have a thin Bakelite body that cracks easily.
If the fixtures are unique, valuable, historic or have sentimental value replacement sockets can be fitted. Not too difficult a project if your handy and careful. Most lighting shops can install them and most electricians will handle the job.
If the fixtures are cheap and unremarkable simple replacement is the best solution. A simple job.
Of course care screwing in the bulbs. Just two finger tight. Makes any socket last longer. There are special silicon based bulb lubricants that can keep those aluminum on aluminum threads free. I have used anti-corrosion grease electricians use to make up aluminum connections with success.
But my favorite lubricant in these cases is to take a common graphite, lead, pencil and to rub it sideways across the bulbs aluminum base. Pressing hard and laying down dark lines. The graphite is a lot less messy, easy to find as any workman carries a pencil and it holds up well. Once a socket has had a few lamps done this way the socket is pretty well set for life.
Given diligent use of any decent lubricant and care screwing bulbs in, not too tight, even a cheap fixture can be made to last.
The other point is to watch the maximum wattage a fixture is rated for. Most cheap ones are only rated for 60w lamps. As eyes get older there is a tendency to overlamp fixtures to get more light. This can destroy sockets, fixture wiring, the wiring in the box behind the fixture and even the drywall or plaster surrounding fixture by overheating. It can also cause a fire.
I have noticed a tendency for the more efficient bulbs in any wattage (in terms of lumens/watt) to have a SHORTER life in the same fixture. At least when right at the fixture's limit (often 60 watts per bulb).
Spending $21 instead of $9 bucks per fixture gets some that are rated to 100w. Put a 75 or 60 in that and you certainly will get your stated 1000 hours. I often have 3 of 4 bulbs in a room burn out in the same week - the 1000 hour rating is that accurate and consistent. So I replace them all or I'll be back next week for the fourth.
DO NOT put compact fluorescents in an enclosed fixture. They don't generate as much heat, but are MUCH MUCH less heat tolerant. In an enclosed fixture, they'll poof in 100-200 hours. Nothing like the 8000 hours claimed.
Oh, and if you have a tricky-to-reach fixture, you can get "long-life" bulbs of reduced efficiency but greater longevity.
Hard to find, but there are bulbs for slightly higher voltages, like 130-volt AC. Those survive voltage spikes much better and last a long time at 120 volts.
If 4LORN1's good suggestions don't solve the problem, here are a few other things to check.
First, a general incandescent lamp is only rated for 1000 hours life. The rating for your lamps should be on the package. If your lamps are on about 3 hours a day you'd only expect about a year's life.
Voltage affects lamp life. The actual voltage can vary from the nominal voltage by a fair amount. Lamp life is a function of voltage cubed, so if your actual voltage is 130 volts then a lamp rated for 1000 hours at 120 volts would last only about 800 hours at 130 volts. It would be easy to check your voltage with a volt meter.
More unusual would be a loose neutral in the supply to your house. That can cause the voltage on half of your circuits to be high and the other half to be low. If you see that your lights get brighter (rather than dimmer) when a large load starts, that's a good clue you have a faulty neutral connection. That would take an electrician to fix.
Finn, I'll echo the others, and add good contact at the base of the bulb and 130v rated. I've got bulbs in some cans that do get used quite a bit that are 15 Y.O. GE's made in the us still burning. I'm a believer in 130v, they do last. Make sure the contact is up enough (with the power off) in the socket to make good connection with the base of the bulb. Poor contact, it arcs, causes heat and early bulb demise.
and welcome to BT
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Edited 3/23/2005 8:23 pm ET by calvin
For really long life -- like 30 years -- find a distributor who stocks GE traffic signal lamps. They come in oddball powers, 67, 69, and 116 watts, 130 volt.
-- J.S.
Or get LED bulbs,http://www.ccrane.com/120-volt-led-light-bulb.aspxhttp://www.theledlight.com/120-VAC-LEDbulbs.html
''very good porch or back door light' and only $353YOUCH !!!!!
How many decades do you think the pay back on that would be?
LOL.Those do get to be a little pricey.On the other hand if the light was in a absolutely critical area and power consumption was a major issue, like a presidential bomb shelter at the north pole those units would be ideal.I have seen situations where the HOs would have been better off with one of those. One HO had a fixture in the three-story entrance hall that forced the use od a scaffold. Every four months or so we would rent scaffolding, erect it and change the bulbs. A few hundred dollars a pop. The HO never balked at a bill.A years or two at that pace and the HO would save money.Eventually we talked him into a different setup and the need to revisit the problem was eliminated. Had these units been available at the time they would have been an option.
A couple alternatives I've seen for that problem:
Make the fixtures accessible from above, have them tilt up into the attic so you can work from a cat walk. The replacement ceiling at the Four Star was like that.
For chandeliers, have them lowered on an electric winch for re-lamping. That's what they had at the Warner Grand.
-- J.S.
Get yourself a voltmeter at Radio Shack (they should have something for $20 or so) and measure the voltage at various places in the house and at various times of day. Voltage from one outlet to another shouldn't vary more than about 3V. Overall voltage should be between roughly 117 and 123.
If you get a lot of voltage variation from outlet outlet then there is a bad connection somewhere, possibly out on the power pole. (Note, this can be a dangerous situation, if there is a bad neutral connectiin somewhere.) If you get a uniformly high voltage then talk to your power company to see if they can reduce it. If you get a lot of time-related voltage variation you may want to talk to your power co too.
First, Thank you for all the posts!
As for the quality of the fixtures. They vary. Some are bottom of the line that were installed so I could move in and replace as we decorated. Others are Top of the line ($1-2K) But they all experiance similar lamp life. Conversely, several of the cheap fixtures have lamps that are four years old and have never been replaced.
With that said (typed) I will check the voltage at various locations to see how it varies and maybe follow up with a call to the power company.
All your input is appreciated.
Finn
I put compact fluorescent bulbs in enclosed kitchen fixtures many years ago. Two went poof in a short while. The part that was somewhat alarming is that the ballast on one was badly burned. I replaced them with identical bulbs. They were fine for 6 or so years, then one went out, and was replaced with a cheap spiral fluorescent. That lamp has a ugly hue, but has worked for at least 2 years. One lamp has been burning for at least 11 years.
I put one in a enclosed glass globe and it burned upside down, only lasted 2 months.
I put 2 in my ceiling fan which was death on bulbs because of vibration, and these get used extensively. Good to go still after 4 years.
I also put them in my bathroom medicine cabinet and they have given great service there, but the top is open (as is my living room fan).
The kitchen fan has been using compact fluorescent as has my bedroom fan, with good results so far, even though they both have enclosed globes.
It's kind of like a crap shoot, but overall I have been happy. Some have disgusting CRI indexes, and make everything look surreal, so be warned on that. The better quality ones generally look OK.
Some of the CFLs have specific limitations as to base-up or base-down installation, but that's getting rarer. Also, the CRI is greatly improved on most newer units, and the danger of a ballast burnout similarly greatly reduced. I'd use them everywhere, except that they still are a bit large for many fixtures, and the dimmable units are larger still (and pretty expensive).
They're great for hard-to-replace locations, though (so long as it's not outside in the snow belt).