# light bulbs burning out



## sparkie (Jan 18, 2010)

I have been doing quite a bit of work in this one development and most all my clients complain of lamp replacement. these houses are 3 years old most 4500 sq to 6000 sq. all voltage to each property is right at 120 volts + or - a volt or two.


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

I would like to know what causes this. We get through so many dam bulbs at our house.


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

The first thing to check is the wattage limitations of the fixture itself. Installing a 200 watt bulb in a fixture rated for 60 watts not only will cause the 200 watt bulb to burn out too quickly, but it also becomes a fire hazard. This is due to the excessive heat that will build up in the fixture and surrounding area.
If the bulbs installed are of the correct, or lower, wattage required by the fixture, the next step is to make sure you are using quality bulbs. Light bulbs have two exterior components, the metal base and the glass bulb. In order to keep the filament inside from burning out, manufacturers remove the normal air from inside a bulb and replace it with an inert gas. In order to keep this gas in, and air out, a seal must be made between the metal base and the glass.
And some makers save a little money by using a lesser-quality sealant than others. Over a short period of time, this cheap sealant can become hard and brittle, allowing air to seep into the bulb and burn out the filament. Using a better quality bulb avoids this problem.
If you’ve made sure you’ve got the correct wattage of quality bulbs installed and you still are replacing them too often, it may be due to excessive vibration. Some bulbs are subject to shaking simply due to their location. Fixtures near a door are a prime example. Another source of vibration may be the occupants of the building, such as a childs bedroom, or equipment such as an exercise room. The constant movement of these items shakes the walls, floors & cielings, and that vibration is transferred to the bulb's filament. If the fixture can be outfitted with 'rough-service' bulbs, that would be one option to try. Rough service bulbs may also be called garage-door operator bulbs, appliance bulbs, or ceiling fan bulbs. They are designed with additional support for the filament than a standard bulb. Another option to look at is Compact Fluorescent (CF) bulbs, which have no filament. And with todays' advancing technology, you may want to look into Light-Emitting-Diode (LED) lights as well.
If none of the above suggestions seem to help, there’s one more thing to try.
And it comes as a surprise to many that there actually are right and wrong ways to proverbially, ‘screw in a light bulb'. You may be twisting them into the socket too tightly.
By ‘cranking down’ on a bulb during installation you may be causing the most damage to the bulb and socket. Premature bulb failure is often caused by bulbs that have been installed too tightly into light fixtures.
Look into the base of a light fixture socket and you will see a brass tab. This tab is bent at an angle when the fixtures are new and will spring back and forth if depressed slightly. Now take several new light bulbs and inspect the base of each one. You will quickly notice that the bottom of most light bulbs has a small dot of solder in the center of the base. More importantly the size of this drop of solder is not exactly consistent. It is close in size, but not always the same size or height.
If the brass tab at the base of the socket does not make firm contact with the bottom of the light bulb, two things may happen. If there is a poor connection between the brass tab and the base of the bulb, the connection may heat up, and this heat cause the filament to burn out too soon.
If the connection is extremely poor, a small electrical arc can occur that starts to melt the solder and eventually burn a tiny hole through the bottom of the bulb. This hole breaks the vacuum inside the light bulb. When this happens, the gas inside the bulb is replaced by the air in your house and the bulb filament rapidly burns out.
To prevent this arcing you must be sure the brass tab is always at about a 30 degree angle inside the bottom of the socket. People who twist bulbs in tightly will depress and flatten the tab so it does not spring back when a bulb is replaced.
If you discover the tab is flattened, then you must turn off the power to the lights at the switch. As an additional safety measure, turn off the circuit breaker to the lights. Use a needle-nose pliers and carefully grasp the sides of the brass tab and slowly pull it up so the end of the tab is about one quarter inch off the base of the socket.
When you install a bulb always do so with the power off and the light switch on. Screw the bulb in enough for the thread to hold the bulb in place. Turn on the power, and continue turning the bulb. As soon as the bulb comes on, turn the bulb one-eighth of a turn. If you screw the bulb in too tightly, you will once again flatten the brass tab.


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## Ohmy (Sep 10, 2009)

480sparky said:


> The first thing to check is the wattage limitations of the fixture itself. Installing a 200 watt bulb in a fixture rated for 60 watts not only will cause the 200 watt bulb to burn out too quickly, but it also becomes a fire hazard. This is due to the excessive heat that will build up in the fixture and surrounding area.
> If the bulbs installed are of the correct, or lower, wattage required by the fixture, the next step is to make sure you are using quality bulbs. Light bulbs have two exterior components, the metal base and the glass bulb. In order to keep the filament inside from burning out, manufacturers remove the normal air from inside a bulb and replace it with an inert gas. In order to keep this gas in, and air out, a seal must be made between the metal base and the glass.
> And some makers save a little money by using a lesser-quality sealant than others. Over a short period of time, this cheap sealant can become hard and brittle, allowing air to seep into the bulb and burn out the filament. Using a better quality bulb avoids this problem.
> If you’ve made sure you’ve got the correct wattage of quality bulbs installed and you still are replacing them too often, it may be due to excessive vibration. Some bulbs are subject to shaking simply due to their location. Fixtures near a door are a prime example. Another source of vibration may be the occupants of the building, such as a childs bedroom, or equipment such as an exercise room. The constant movement of these items shakes the walls, floors & cielings, and that vibration is transferred to the bulb's filament. If the fixture can be outfitted with 'rough-service' bulbs, that would be one option to try. Rough service bulbs may also be called garage-door operator bulbs, appliance bulbs, or ceiling fan bulbs. They are designed with additional support for the filament than a standard bulb. Another option to look at is Compact Fluorescent (CF) bulbs, which have no filament. And with todays' advancing technology, you may want to look into Light-Emitting-Diode (LED) lights as well.
> ...


 Way to hog all the good stuff sparky. 

Also, try 130V lamps, they tend to last longer.


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## Static Design (Nov 30, 2008)

Sparky hit the enter button a few times, you gave me a headache.


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

Static Design said:


> Sparky hit the enter button a few times, you gave me a headache.


 
I did. At least nine time by my count.:whistling


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## Static Design (Nov 30, 2008)

lol


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## Anti-wingnut (Mar 12, 2009)

This latest thread is a joy to read Sparkie, nice job learning about spell check. You'll get taken a lot more seriously

http://www.contractortalk.com/f63/delincuent-licens-71632/


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

Anti-wingnut said:


> This latest thread is a joy to read Sparkie, nice job learning about spell check. You'll get taken a lot more seriously
> 
> http://www.contractortalk.com/f63/delincuent-licens-71632/


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

Dimmers.


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## Kent Whitten (Mar 24, 2006)

and LED's


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

and CFLs.



Oh, my!


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## sparkie (Jan 18, 2010)

*Good job 480*



480sparky said:


> The first thing to check is the wattage limitations of the fixture itself. Installing a 200 watt bulb in a fixture rated for 60 watts not only will cause the 200 watt bulb to burn out too quickly, but it also becomes a fire hazard. This is due to the excessive heat that will build up in the fixture and surrounding area.
> If the bulbs installed are of the correct, or lower, wattage required by the fixture, the next step is to make sure you are using quality bulbs. Light bulbs have two exterior components, the metal base and the glass bulb. In order to keep the filament inside from burning out, manufacturers remove the normal air from inside a bulb and replace it with an inert gas. In order to keep this gas in, and air out, a seal must be made between the metal base and the glass.
> And some makers save a little money by using a lesser-quality sealant than others. Over a short period of time, this cheap sealant can become hard and brittle, allowing air to seep into the bulb and burn out the filament. Using a better quality bulb avoids this problem.
> If you’ve made sure you’ve got the correct wattage of quality bulbs installed and you still are replacing them too often, it may be due to excessive vibration. Some bulbs are subject to shaking simply due to their location. Fixtures near a door are a prime example. Another source of vibration may be the occupants of the building, such as a childs bedroom, or equipment such as an exercise room. The constant movement of these items shakes the walls, floors & cielings, and that vibration is transferred to the bulb's filament. If the fixture can be outfitted with 'rough-service' bulbs, that would be one option to try. Rough service bulbs may also be called garage-door operator bulbs, appliance bulbs, or ceiling fan bulbs. They are designed with additional support for the filament than a standard bulb. Another option to look at is Compact Fluorescent (CF) bulbs, which have no filament. And with todays' advancing technology, you may want to look into Light-Emitting-Diode (LED) lights as well.
> ...


 

RIGHT ON 480!!! I posted this question to see if someone had the answer to something i had to figure out on my own. I knew it had to be something that was repetitive. the problem was too constant for this one development. i figured it out when i spoke with the electrical foreman on the job and he mentioned his lamps showed up after fixture installation so he had his teen age boy go through and install all the light bulbs in most of the houses. After examining the socket and lamp i found the pitting due to twisting the lamp too tight. I was able to go back through and fix the sockets and replace lamps for the customers i dealt with and they no longer have any issues. this was nearly a year ago and i still get calls from the development to rectify the lamp issue. "Some secrets are ment to be kept".:whistling


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

> and LED's


Then you may need ELV dimmers.



> and CFLs.


Dimmer and a standard CFL is a great way to shorten the life...learned that one the hard way many years ago! Plus the dimmable ones are expensive and the dimming range is terrible...I hate CFLs.


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## boman47k (Oct 13, 2006)

> As an additional safety measure, *turn off the circuit breaker to the lights*.


 :clap::whistling


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## Electric_Light (Nov 25, 2007)

lamp life is an exponential curve as a function of voltage +5% = 1/2 life, +10% = 1/4. -5% =2x, -10% = 4x 
IES Lighting Handbook gives you an exact formula for a +/- 15% or so from rated voltage. Although, efficacy (lm/W) is dropped significantly with under volting so, long life or 130v lamps are not always a good idea. 

You may want to do voltage logging at a socket. Premature failures are either voltage or vibration related (i.e. does the wall vibrate/resonate from wind, or doors slamming?)


Dimmers are great for medical and theatre stuff with very expensive lamps since you can ramp up the voltage gradually to prevent the stress on starting, but they basically under drive the lamps and wreak havoc in efficacy.

Also, if the house is 6,000 square feet, they have so many light bulbs that it may feel like they're going out excessively.

750hrs (100W) to 1500 hrs (40W) is based on 50% failure rate, so if you're around there already, another one might just come to its life after you just replaced a different one causing a psychological perception that they're burning out excessively.


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