ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area AAAAHHHHH....I am so frustrated now.

John:

I have heard of that lamps do have this, but in this case, this particular lamp that exploded was one that was in service for a few weeks.. This " Q-250 -PAR38"
looks like the typical "Outdoor flood" you would buy at any hardware or home improvement store only its rated 250W and meant for use in these large Cans in the ceiling in the convention center...
The Quartz capsule containing the filament ruptured with such force that it shattered the outer glass reflector and lens, sending hot glass down onto the floor, mere seconds after one of the center's employees walked under the fixture!

I dunno, I have just had bad luck with Sylvania lamps in the past.. from them being duds in the box, to them burning out prematurely.. I have even had a few regular incandescents shatter in my hands while installing them ( ALWAYS USE GLOVES!!).. Their Metal halide lamps always seem to fail violently as well, the arc- tube always seems to explode and puncture a hole in the outer envelope of the bulb.. Makes for a real pain and a real mess when trying to remove one. Chances are the outer envelope is going to shatter as soon as you even look at it wrong!

Thats just my opinion though.. I am not really keen on Phillips anymore, but they work.. G.E bulbs I have always seemed to have luck with.. They always work, seem to last the longest and when its their turn to " Bow out", They dont go out with a BANG!

A.D

I had a 4 lamp halogen fixture that had bulbs explode. They also became very bright before exploding. Turned out to be a bad neutral connection at the fixture itself.

Why do you say this? Could you elaborate a little please?

GA, a dimmer has the effect of lowering the voltage at the bulb.....assuming the thing is not on "full bright." Less volts = more life.

I recently saw an old friend who I did some recessed lights for. He told me that he's never had to replace any of the light bulbs I installed. The thing is, I did these lights for him in 1993!!! Talk about long-life bulbs!

Shock...maybe if he actually turned them on...they might wear out quicker.

"123.4V. and at the last can it is 122.9V"

Its not much of a deal maybe, but how far are these cans from each other? Was this checked under load? If not, a .5 volt loss could be a sign of a slightly loose connection, and could contribute to lamps blowing out. It's one of those things that is hard to find, or recongnize, but a slightly resistive connection could do the same thing. Eat bulbs. Firm contact in the base too.

Some of us who have done service type work have probhably come accross this a few times.

I would pay a little extra and use the 130V lamps.

Also if a dimmer is installed, when lamps are dimmed 10%, the life of the lamp is usually doubled.

If I was not going to dim them, the way to go is compact flourescent. Instead of 65W, you would only be using 15W, and most CFL's are rated for 10000 hours (about 5 times as long as a namebrand BR or PAR lamp)
http://wanglo.com/cfl/r30.htm

Personally, I prefer this lamp in the link over any of the big name manufacturers because of size (same as BR30) and its colour is virtually identical to an incandescant lamp, not to mention it is affordable.

[This message has been edited by distributor x (edited 02-25-2006).]

Regular GE bulbs and 130V/69W Phillips and Sylvania bulbs last the longest in my sealed traffic signals, which have internal temps of about 300ºF. We have two compact flourescants from when they first came out at $15 a pop, and they're going strong. The newer, cheap ones are crap. 1 out of every 5 DOA.

Ian A.