ECN Electrical Forum - Discussion Forums for Electricians, Inspectors and Related Professionals
ECN Shout Chat
ShoutChat
Recent Posts
Increasing demand factors in residential
by gfretwell - 03/28/24 12:43 AM
Portable generator question
by Steve Miller - 03/19/24 08:50 PM
Do we need grounding?
by NORCAL - 03/19/24 05:11 PM
240V only in a home and NEC?
by dsk - 03/19/24 06:33 AM
Cordless Tools: The Obvious Question
by renosteinke - 03/14/24 08:05 PM
New in the Gallery:
This is a new one
This is a new one
by timmp, September 24
Few pics I found
Few pics I found
by timmp, August 15
Who's Online Now
1 members (Scott35), 267 guests, and 14 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate Thread
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 136
C
cgw Offline OP
Member
Are there any possible reasons for what seems like a short lamp life of incandescent and low voltage lamps?
For example a dining room fixture was replaced in part because the incandscent lamps were burning out too often. But now the MR16 lamps in the new fixture seem to be failing too often.

Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 787
L
Member
Three leading causes of short tungsten lamp life are high voltage, excessive shock / vibration, and high heat.

Is the fixture on a light dimmer? Turning down the voltage even 10% can double lamp life.

Is there alot of pounding, dancing, or jumping up and down directly above the fixture? Excess bass thumping? All of these can shorten the bulb life.

Are there covers or add on shades that can trap the lamp heat? Are you using the lamps in the correct orientation? Some bulbs require burn base up or burn base down.


Are you using photgraphic bulbs. Many of the special light color lamps only have a limited life of 50 or 100 hours.

Last edited by LarryC; 02/06/12 04:22 PM.
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,381
Likes: 7
Member
Larry has it covered. The 'bargain price' bulbs have short life spans also.

Most of my incandescent lamps home are on dimmers, and I can't complain about burn outs.


John
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 368
M
Member
Had a local pizza restaurant that was loosing bulbs in wall fixtures because of the kitchen swing door being slightly out of alignment and banging on the frame.

Told the owner (I was a regular customer) tighten the hinge screws and your bulb problem should go away. He did and it was good until the suntan place next door caught fire and burned the strip mall.

Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,923
Likes: 32
G
Member
130v bulbs will last longer too.


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 613
M
Member
Originally Posted by gfretwell
130v bulbs will last longer too.

Yes they do and give less lumens at 120 volts which can be perfectly acceptable.
Obviously confirm the voltage is stable and within spec. When all else is good then cheep bulbs are not cheap if you have to change them often. That said, even good quality lamps have defects on occasion.

Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 251
T
Member
Planned obsolescence was started with the light bulb.


Shake n Bake

Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5