Light Globes Keep Blowing, Why?

[Dan_574]

The globes in my house keep blowing on a regular basis, it varies from which room but at least one will blow every three weeks. It's a new house so I don't know what's wrong. We are at the limit as far as amps go for the single phase we have. I wish I researched the electrical side of the house as thouroughly as I did everything else. Ah well you live and learn.

[Tarty]

Think about the quality of the bulbs. I had a few blow in quick succession and found it was cheap bulbs. Go for Phillips or Osram and see you you go.

[Dan]

What type of fitting and what size lamp is in them (watts)?

[Cliff Rogers]

quality of the bulbs,

vibration/s,

extremes of temp.... IE more bulbs blow in winter than summer.

[ChrisH]

It may be the supply voltage. Complain to your electricity supplier, ask them to put a voltage recorder on the line for a while. It may be a battle to get them to agree. A friend of mine had constant trouble for a couple of years, eventually with a monitoring box attached to their supply, they were able to establish that the voltage was about 260 volts. A technician changed the transformer out on the street to a lower voltage tap and all was fine. Took about two years battling the bureaucracy to make it happen.

[HavinaGo]

I'd agree with Chris.

Overvoltage is a big killer of light globes. So if you are able to check the supply voltage, that would be my first step .. find a friend with a Mains rated voltmeter as an inital quick check ... try at several times in the day and night .. turn off other appliances in your house to limit volt drop on your supply .. ie to get the max reading.

Overheating can also do it .. In my sister's place we had the experience of a single light fitting in which globes did not last very long (it was a glass bowl enclosing the globe completely with metal trim top and bottom) .. drilled 2 rings of holes in the metal parts top and bottom and the life of the globes is now the same as the others in the house .. .

Vibration is another killer ... do you live near a heavy train line? The Melbourne line through the Adelaide Hills was accross the road where I grew up ... the story of the decorative glass bowl with metal spike falling from the passage light fitting and sticking out of the floor after Aunt X had just stepped out of the front door as a large train passed by is a good family tale.
:eek: But that is a different type of failure

Happy hunting

[Ashore]

All of the above or you be causing the problem if you are close to the single phase amps limit you can cause spikes that will cause problems and shorten the life of the lamps test with a decient digital meter fluke or equivelant and watch as someone else turns to your biggest appliance not the dip in current checking the amperage is more difficult you would need a eleco for that, but I would check out the other suggestions first espically the quality of the lamps.





The trouble with life is there's no background music

[simon c]

A couple of other questions:

Is anything else tripping when the globes fail? Ie does the circuit breaker trip at the same time.
Are the globes that fail on the lighting circuit (ie ceiling lights) or are they table lamps that are plugged in to the power circuit?
Globes often fail due to hotspots, because the globe has a greasy mark on it, it is made of badly formed glass or the glass is in contact with part of the fitting

[mic-d]

The courtesy lights in our automatic garage door openers were blowing on a regular basis and my sparky friend suggested it was vibration. The light shop sold me vibration-resistant globes and the problem was resolved. Sparky friend did not know you could buy these, so thought it might be good FYI.

Cheers
Michael

[Dan_574]

Thanks all, all great advice, all the lights are on the lighting circuit and vibration could be the cause. The house is sitting on 16 posts about 2.7m above the ground with a verandah all the way around. The globes are all phillips and blow at irregular times, I may have to check out the spikes. Nothing else trips when the lights blow, and they seem to be at different sections of the house where the vibrations arnt so bad. I'm really at a loss.

[mutanti]

While girlfriends brother was living here with me they kept blowing.
after he moved out and girlfriend moved in had 1 blow in 1 1/2 years,, mabee coz he was on internet all night playing games, i dont know..