ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area light bulb burnout

Watch out that the screw-based fluorescents don't "fail"/disappear faster.

Buddy,
What sort(type) of lamp are we talking about here?.
It sounds like you need a Surge Diverter in the Mains.

These are the same bulbs that are burning out each time and they are standard 60 watt incandescent bulbs.

FYI:

The 130-volt bulbs are sometimes seen at 99 cent stores at a buck for a three or four-pack. Look for brands like "Premier light bulbs" or "Trisonic" but check the bulbs themselves to make sure they're marked 130V.

I put two such light bulbs (60-watt) in a fixture in my apartment in the Summer of 2001 (when I moved in). They're still there, so they've lasted a year-plus!

The voltage in my building oscillates between 117 and 125 (higher late at night, lower in the morning).

That fixture is left on a lot - it's in the little entry-hallway.

Use 20,000 Hour Rated Lamps. The good one's are guaranteed for 2 years.....

They are not expensive if you know where to buy them...

If you don’t mind some input from an OSHA professor regarding troubleshooting or diagnostics, here goes.

A colleague of mine Haz-Mat professor from our national training institute had a similar problem at his complex / condo. So I offered to check it out for him. Symptoms include light bulbs blowing frequently from several minutes after being replaced to lasting only hours after being replaced.
Further discussions revealed that a vacuum cleaner had also burned out recently (smoking motor).

Armed with my various electrical testers, and PPE (FR clothing, safety glasses, and dielectric gloves (class O)) I preceded to garner diagnostic facts. (Doesn’t this sound like someone who trains investigators ?)

Facts established:
I tested the lamp outlet and it was 127 volts. Other receptacles in the apartment were 118 volts.
Back at the main panel (in the apartment) which was a single phase panel. Line to line measured 206 v and line 1 to neutral was 118v and line 2 to neutral was 128 v.

Conclusions:
What this told me was that the supply to this single phase panel was from a 3 phase transformer (208 v nominal).
That transformer obviously would also be used to supply other apartments. The voltages were fluxuating intermittently.
With out charting / monitoring the voltage for a period of time (data logger) there was no way to determine how high the voltage on that leg actually did climb to (could in fact be much higher than 127 at times) .

Additional / Final Conclusion: Intermittent Neutral connection on the transformer feeding apartments. The voltage on a particular leg could intermittently climb / fluxuate based upon the integrity of the transformer neutral connection and total apartment loads at any given time.

Solutions: Contact the utility (it’s their x-former) and advise them of the over voltage condition and ask them to check out the transformer connections which may need to be tightened / “cinched up” and tell my colleague to use 130 v bulbs in the meantime and those same bulbs would provide exceptionally long service life when the system was fixed and running at 120v nominal again.

Have you checked any voltages ? At the lamp which is failing prematurely? It is not unusual for these types of complexes to be fed from three phase x-formers and you know what loose neutral connections can cause. Combine that with the addition of intermittent conditions (the absolute worst situation to attampt to troubleshoot)it can be a hair pulling experience to say the least.

My philosophy is that: "unless you measure it you don't know anything about it" so some voltage measurements might be in order for troubleshooting purposes.
Yeah this professor can function outside of the classroom / lab environment (in the real world so to speak).
Hope this helps.
OSHA Professor - Grizzy