At Ask Me Help Desk you can ask questions in any topic and have them
answered for free by our experts. To ask questions or participate in
answering them you must register for a free account. By registering you
will be able to:
Get free answers from experts in any of our 300+
topics.
New lighting circuit run. I call it "The Bulb Killer".
Hey there everybody,
I've run the lighting circuit and have been testing the light layout before I put the ceiling drywall up, but I've run into a problem that's going to put that on hold for a bit:
I've got 6 cans, each with 75 watt PAR30L bulbs. They're controlled by two three way switches, with the feed coming into one and the switch leg coming into the other. I currently have nothing else running on this circuit.
In the past, if a fixture ate bulbs quicker than normal, we assumed it was a poor connection causing a voltage drop/high resistance. However, I've never had a fixture spit them out in a matter of hours.
I was methodical when wiring these, with tight twists and a little help on the wire nuts with the dikes. I'm using Sylvania lights, so it's not cheap bulbs, since they were the most expensive bulb on the isle.
I'm wondering how I might go about testing this with a multimeter. What values should I look for on startup and when running. Also, I imagine that I need to have the bulbs in place for testing? I ask because in the last 12 hours, I have gone through $40 worth of lighting
Hi there, and thanks very much for taking the time to help:
1) The fixture allows either a BR60 60 watt or PAR30L 75 watt. I've not over-bulbed it.
2) The bulb type is correct.
3) Currently, I'd say it's over-ventilated . They're hanging in open joist bays.
4) I don't know off hand. I would have to get a thermometer to test. What is acceptable?
5) I will definitely keep that in mind, as we grabbed the last one in that box and we would have to wait for them to pull down more.
I'd be happy to pick up a thermo, but just need to know what temp might be considered too much. The junction box attached to the side of the can stated 90c!!!
[EDIT]Also, the bulbs burn on startup. So far, we've not had one pop while running, just when activating the circuit.[/EDIT]
[FINAL EDIT, PROMISE]Looking at the bulbs, it's quite an odd thing. Most bulbs, when they blow have at the most a piece of filament dropped to the lens. These bulbs actually have blown glass. There are small pieces of glass laying on the lens of the blown bulbs. A lot.[/FINAL EDIT, I PROMISE]
I think you convinced me it is extremely likely it's a bad lot of bulbs. Temperature won't be an issue on startup.
Bulbs are more likely to die at startup, because this is the time of most stress. I had some ELH lamps which have a coil like filament and they would easily pop when there was a LOT of vibration. The segments would fuse together.
Hi there labman, I don't know what a neutral circuit is, but I can tell you that this circuit runs a total of 6 75w cans, two 35w point lights and a single 40w at the entrance of the kitchen. Nothing else is run on this circuit.
The reason I thought it odd was because the way I ran the subsequent cans would require almost all of the joints to fail, since it wasn't a standard daisy-chain, but a split from the primary can to two directions, then a chain from there.
Sounds like a bad batch of bulbs to me. 121 is a little higher than I'm used to (it's usually 118 here) but shouldnt cause problems. You can always try 130v bulbs, or put a dimmer on the circuit.
Linear Mode
