Installed a 100 watt mercury vapor outdoor light. It was fine until winter now its going thru bulbs. Problem started when customer is using a small electric space 1500watt heater on inside on same circut. Is it a defective fixture or to much on circut. Thanks
The 100 watt light draws about.9 amp (100W/110V=.9091A) The 1500 watt space heater draws (1500w/110v=13.6364A) total draw is 14.5455A A 20 Amp breaker will carry this all day. A 15 amp breaker will propally carry this if the heater does not run all the time. If 14AWG wire was used and the heater and light are over50-75' away you propably have a voltage drop causing the light to pull more than normal. If so the bulb will heat up more than normal and burn out much to soon. You need to do a voltage check at the circuit breaker feeding this circuit and at the heater and at the light. Be careful and use a good quality meter. Avoltage drop of greater than 5% is a problem. You may need to seperate the heater and light. Also check if anything else is on the circuit. Good luck
Ray, One thing I do know, is that any type of Gas Discharge lighting, does not particularly like Voltage drop, it can damage the control gear as well as the lamps. If possible, I would put the MV Lighting on a dedicated circuit. Hope this helps.