Incandescent Bulbs

[James Sentman]

On Jan 12, 2008, at 11:06 PM, Jerry — MacSolutions wrote:

> With the evident death of incandescent bulbs, perhaps my question is  
> more than latent... But, I seem to be blowing up bulbs more often  
> lately.
>
> Most of my switches "dim on" and off so they seem to last longer  
> than the "full on" ones.  I know the blast of electricity will shake  
> the filament until it breaks but as I said, they seem to be blowing  
> more often of late, with no programming changes involved.
>
> Does anyone use bulbs designed for garage door openers and would  
> they last longer?  I know that they're made more toughly to deal  
> with the vibration involved with the electric motors...



Many of the things that would cause an incandescent to blow wouldn't  
be that good for a CF either, so it may not be latent ;)

First I'd check the voltage levels just in general. It's more common  
for voltage to be low than high, and if you were having serious  
electrical issues like with loose neutrals I'd expect that there would  
be other more serious and suspicious things happening, but it's still  
worth checking. Then just have a close look at the fixtures  
themselves. The same bad connections at the bulb base that can cause  
overheating and early death in CF bulbs can do the same to regular  
bulbs. If the little tab at the back that makes the center connection  
is corroded or just pushed too far back so that it doesn't make a good  
connection then that will eat lightbulbs of any type. I have had to  
take a needle nose pliers to a couple here and bend them back out a  
bit to make good connection with the bulb if replacing the whole thing  
isn't practical. Course you'll want to make sure that you disconnect  
power to that circuit before you reach in to grab the hot connection  
that way... ;)

I've started to lose the regular bulbs around here faster too, and  
especially at the mother in laws place where I am in charge of  
changing light bulbs for her as well... I think it's all this "Green"  
power that is entering the grid, fighting it out with all the old  
school coal electricity already bouncing around in there. It has an  
intent and an agenda which includes burning out our traditional light  
bulbs!

Thanks,
  James


James Sentman                       http://sentman.com		http://MacHomeAutomation.com