# Bulbs blowing



## 480sparky

Light bulbs burning out too often and too soon is a common headache for homeowners. You had light fixtures installed in your home for safety and convenience, yet the bulbs just don’t seem to last.The first thing to check is the wattage limitations of the fixture itself. Installing a 200 watt bulb in a fixture rated for 60 watts not only will cause the 200 watt bulb to burn out too quickly, but it also becomes a fire hazard. This is due to the excessive heat that will build up in the fixture and surrounding area.
The next thing to check is the quality of the bulb. Not all bulbs are the same. There are good bulbs and there are cheap bulbs. Buying a name-brand bulb instead of an unknown brand generally works out better.
If you’ve made sure you’ve got the correct wattage of quality bulbs installed and you still are replacing them too often, it may be due to excessive vibration. Some bulbs are subject to shaking simply due to their location. Fixtures near a door are a prime example. Another source of vibration may be the occupants of the building, such as a childs bedroom, or equipment such as an exercise room. The constant movement of these items shakes the walls, floors & cielings, and that vibration is transferred to the bulb's filament. If the fixture can be outfitted with 'rough-service' bulbs, that would be one option to try. Rough service bulbs may also be called garage-door operator bulbs, appliance bulbs, or ceiling fan bulbs. They are designed with additional support for the filament than a standard bulb. Another option to look at is Compact Fluorescent (CF) bulbs, which have no filament. And with todays' advancing technology, you may want to look into Light-Emitting-Diode (LED) lights as well.
If none of the above suggestions seem to help, there’s one more thing to try.
And it comes as a surprise to many that there actually are right and wrong ways to proverbially, ‘screw in a light bulb'. You may be twisting them into the socket too tightly.
By ‘cranking down’ on a bulb during installation you may be causing the most damage to the bulb and socket. Premature bulb failure is often caused by bulbs that have been installed too tightly into light fixtures.
Look into the base of a light fixture socket and you will see a brass tab. This tab is bent at an angle when the fixtures are new and will spring back and forth if depressed slightly. Now take several new light bulbs and inspect the base of each one. You will quickly notice that the bottom of most light bulbs has a small dot of solder in the center of the base. More importantly the size of this drop of solder is not exactly consistent. It is close in size, but not always the same size or height.
If there is a poor connection between the brass tab and the base of the bulb, the connection may heat up, and this heat cause the filament to burn out too soon.
To prevent this, you must be sure the brass tab is always at about a 30 degree angle inside the bottom of the socket. People who twist bulbs in tightly will depress and flatten the tab so it does not spring back when a bulb is replaced.
If you discover the tab is flattened, then you must turn off the power to the lights at the switch. As an additional safety measure, turn off the circuit breaker to the lights. Use a needle-nose pliers and carefully grasp the sides of the brass tab and slowly pull it up so the end of the tab is about one quarter inch off the base of the socket.
When you install a bulb always do so with the power off and the light switch on. Screw the bulb in enough for the thread to hold the bulb in place. Turn on the power, and continue turning the bulb. As soon as the bulb comes on, turn the bulb one-eighth of a turn. If you screw the bulb in too tightly, you will once again flatten the brass tab.


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## BryanMD

did you measure the voltage at the bulb? and identify the various wires in the sw box?

I'd suspect that someone tied in that switch box incorrectly and (I could easily see) instead of breaking the circuit (sw leg) they've put a second 120 to the fixture instead.


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## BDB

480, I questioned them about the bulbs, my first thought was they got a hold of a bad batch of bulbs. But some bulbs were ones they had on hand and some were ones they went to the store to get when they ran out. This problem is about 7 different fixtures and they have changed about 15 bulbs.

They have lived in the house about 6 months and it has just started. Some of the fixtures are 5 lamp fixtures and only one lamp will go out. It goes out as soon as they put a new lamp in and turn the switch on.

BryamMD. I checked the voltage and and checked all the wires in the switch box.

*"I'd suspect that someone tied in that switch box incorrectly and (I could easily see) instead of breaking the circuit (sw leg) they've put a second 120 to the fixture instead."

*Bryan, this is one of the things I thought when I first was told of the problem. But all voltage checked good, and the room that he messed with switch's in does not have this problem.


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## KayJay

Just wondering if you have tried using a different brand of bulb yet? 
If you’re using General Electric standard A-19 incandescent bulbs, they might be the culprits. 
I had to stop using them and switch brands several years ago due to almost constant premature failure of the 60W and 100W bulbs. Even the 65W BR30, 90W BR40 and 75W PAR 38 bulbs had issues.


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## 480sparky

Try installing some 130v bulbs and see what happens.


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## BDB

One thing I forgot to mention was that when they had some blow they would some time blow right away and some time a few days later.

480, I have thought about telling them to try 130v lamps, but wanted to check here to see if maybe i was missing something.

kayjay,I havent heard the problems with the GE brand, I will see what brands they have.


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## daddymack

I can't count the times I get asked about bulbs blowing. The most common problem I found was the brand of bulbs. Many people go to the family dollar of dollar general store and get those bulbs they have. I say try a quality (GE) bulb.

That usually does the trick


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## RePhase277

Could the circuit be fed from a multiwire branch circuit? A loose neutral on such a circuit would allow wild voltage swings, depending on what loads were on the other leg of the MWBC. This would greatly shorten the life of a lamp, or almost instantly blow the bulb if the voltage is high enough at that moment.


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## kbsparky

Bad socket. Once the rivets that hold a socket together gets loose, it will blow bulbs up the wazoo. The connection simply heats up and literally bakes the bulbs at the base. :blink:

Have they tried any CFL bulbs in there?


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## BDB

Just an update:

I told the occupants that I felt it was just bad bulbs, told them they could try 130v bulbs, but they said they were going to call the poco and have them check for surges and the such, I told them they were wasting money but they called them any way. Poco told them there was no problem with their end of things ($100.00 they wasted). They asked me, "you do commercial and Industrial and no houses right?", "Well do you know a Residential electric we could call?" So i washed my hands of it and gave them a company to call.


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## electricalperson

check all connections in the fixtures too. some people say a loose neutral will cause lamps to blow but i dont know the science behind that

i had quite a few service calls about bulbs blowing left and right. all i did was tighten the connections down and the problem was fixed.


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