So my sister tells me tonight, days before her year warranty on the home expires “we’re really going through a lot of light bulbs.” Not in every fixture, just some. The bathroom in particular seems to average in days for duration, and that one, in particular, seems to make audible it’s decision to end the bulbs short life. Me and electrical don’t mix real well. I know enough to know to leave anything beyond ultra simple to an electrician. This, naturally, baffles me somewhat. What would cause some fixtures in a house to burn through lightbulbs at such a rate? Sounds like the potential at least for fire hazards.
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A loose neutral? That seems to be one of the more common reasons, especially when it's confined to a certain circuit.
Have her document the problem and send it off the the builder, or whoever owns the warranty. Send it certified mail, return receipt requested.
The incandescent. After tracking a few of these down and lacking any more authoritative information I have found that heat build up is the problem. Heat damages the seals of the light bulb. The surest solution is to replace the fixture.
Sometimes a careful examination will reveal the specific problem with the fixture. Loose rivets or screws making the electrical connections will cause this problem. A center tab pushed too far down or a corroded or damaged shell will prevent the bulb from screwing in far enough to make the connection. Pulling the tab up or lubricating threads of the bulb with graphite, a carpenters pencil applied firmly and liberally to the bulb threads, will sometimes correct the problem.
Aluminum shells are particularly prone to these problems. I have had the shell on a new fixture to bind and gall with a new bulb. This leaves you a fixture that is difficult to get bulbs into and not uncommonly out of. Bulbs breaking while leaving base in the socket is a probable outcome. When buying a fixture look for sockets with chromed steel or brass shells, anything but soft aluminum. These are less likely to bind.
Just because the bulb lights up does not mean you have a good connection. One way to check is to run the light for 10 minutes or so and to feel how hot the socket is. Try this with a lamp without this problem. Usually the socket will be hot but not too hot to keep your hand on. Compare this to the basement socket/s. If it is running hot you likely have your problem.
All this assumes no great wiring faults. These would likely show up as other problems unlikely but something to watch for. Also look for any source of water dripping on the bulb. Basements are notorious for humidity and condensation on a cool surface dripping down could be enough to blow the bulb. Your best bet is to replace the fixture.
OK. I cheated and copied this from a previous post I wrote but it sums up my opinion.
Slamming doors and stomping on the floor directly above the light can help shorten a bulbs life too.
bake
Since we're on the subject- I recall hearing someone mention once about bulb sockets that are hooked up directly to 12 wire will have a shorter life than those that have the 18 wire leaders going from the socket to the 12. Is there any truth to this? Let the thunder crack and the waves roar.
We're going on.
I can't say that you would get a longer life with the lamps, bulbs, but it makes it easier to get a good connection in boxes with many wires, 3+, made up under the wire nut. The fixture wires are usually #16 or #18 and getting a good connection when included with 4 or 5 #12s can be tricky. Adding another #12 so it acts as a pigtail makes making the connection and stuffing the box faster and easier.
I thought maybe they were speaking of the initial spike of current to the filament of the incandescent bulb when a switch is turned on would be lessened by the 18wire leader to the socket compared to the intensity of the 12 wire. Let the thunder crack and the waves roar.
We're going on.
I can't say absolutely no to this but with my limited understanding of the system I don't see it.
Switching to 130v commercial bulbs does seem to help some. They seem to last about 50% longer. Used to be this was an electricians trick as these lamps, bulbs, were available only from a supply house. I regularly see them in the home centers as commercial or extra-long life bulbs. You can confirm this pretty easily as the voltage rating will be pressed into the base of the bulb.Installing a dimmer will also work as it works by lowering the voltage that the lamp sees.
If the problem is not the sockets, loose rivets, corroded shells or weak center contacts being the most common, there may be a larger problem that bears looking into. A call to the utility to get a trouble crew out would be my first move at this point. Most utilities will do this for free.
Not enough wire for the #18 to have any affect.
Say you have 18" leads. Counting both that would be 0.023 ohms
And you have 50 ft run of #12 that would be 0.193 ohms.
What would work would be PTC varistors. They are used in some electronic equipment to reduce surge currents.
So the final is it's an old wives tail.HarHar
Speaking of the possible decrease in filament longivity by spikes thru 12gauge being hooked directly to socket without 18 gauge leaders. No difference then.ok. Let the thunder crack and the waves roar.
We're going on.
Have the electric company check the neutral, both in the (I'm assuming) underground service and at the appropriate transformer.
If its a bad neutral, its a fire hazard.
If the other suggestions don't help here are additional options:
1.Try to install a dimmer on the circuit, by reducing the output to the lamps 20% you can double the life of the lamp and save some electricity to boot. Voltage spikes tend to fry the fillaments. The greater the reduction the longer the life.
2. Switch to lower wattage lamps. this will have a large effect if the lamps are hung with the globe down and the base above. Heat, like another poster stated, eats up the adhesive that holds the lamp to the metal base.
3. Consider a surge arrestor in the load center. The voltage spikes will be abated by this. It won't cure a high RMS voltage (average) just the spikes from lightening etc.
Take a Volt meter and stick it in any outlet at the house. It could be the voltage to the building spikes during different parts of the day. Voltage is generally high during weekend and on different points in the day if she lives near industrial areas or far out in the country) The power company tries to regulate voltage +-10% but industries firing up +50 HP motors suck the voltage down at the beginning of the shift (6 to 8 AM). The low voltage will be readable on the volt ohm meter. Similarily when they turn off these motors the voltage goes up. Lamps run on 120 volts. any more voltage they age faster. If the voltage is above that call the power company and complain. Voltage maintenance is their domain.
Last thought. She might not be keeping track of time very well. You get about 6 months on a lamp in normal duty. Pounding in picture frame nails, turning on and off the light frequently, and the normal foot thumping of teens walking around the house prematurely age the filaments.
I have one light under a hallway that was constantly going out. On a 9 foot ceiling that gets old real fast. I changed to a "rough service" lamp and I can't remember the last time I was up there.
One thing that I have found on generator driven circuits is that 220V on light bulbs make them burn brightly for a few hours. Then POOF! You might want to check and see what the voltage at the light socket is.
Erich
I have observed the same thing with 120v drills on 240v circuits. They run very well but not for very long.
Sorry I did not reply to this sooner. Are these recessed lights? I regularly get this type of call from year old clients. The original lamps we installed, have burned out and replaced with the wrong lamp and therefore keep burning out.
One client replaced a properly installed 75w A19 lamp with a 100w A19 lamp. No good. Burned out within a week.
Improper lamping also causes the fixture to over heat and turn off and then turn back on again after the thermo-gadget cools down. This is when they accuse me of poor wiring.
The inside of the recessed light can has a chart of what lamps at what wattage are apprpriate. If it has been removed, call the manufacturer or go to their website for the info.
Nope. Not a single can light in the whole house. She got the builder out there the other day. His fix for leaking doors was adjust the threshold. ( I already had done that for her), for leaking windows "you could caulk when it gets warmer" and for the lights "I dunno". Man. No wonder customer service complaints rate building trades as low. I can't help her with the electrical, but this spring if she doesn't get any better than that, I'll go pull and reset her doors for her.
This may not fix the cause, but, they sell bulbs for rural applications like cottages/cabins, that apparently put up with fluctuations and other abuses like being left out in the cold.
I am trying one out on an old porch light that has so far eaten at least two bulbs a year. So far it has lasted only three months so I can proclaim it works as advertised yet.
I got one of those $5 philips halogen bulbs that fit in normal sockets that promises 2 years of life or your money back. got two months out of the @#($*U# thing. Of course I don't have the time and energy to document it to get my money back.