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ScottGem
Mar 15, 2007, 06:53 AM
I have an OLD bathroom light fixture in my upstairs bathroom that seems to go through bulbs inordinately frequently. I'm replacing one or the other of the two bulbs seemingly every 2-3 months. I would have replcaed the fixture long ago, except the receptacle doesn't seem to be quite standard so it might take more to replace it.

Is there some way I can test to see why I keeping blowing these bulbs? I should mention that the light is constantly on, but I have other fixtures that remain on that I haven't replaced for years let alone months.

Scott<>

tkrussell
Mar 15, 2007, 07:24 AM
If this is an incandescent lamp, say a 60 Watt 120 volt A19 lamp, the standard light bulb we are all familiar with, the typical rated hours is only 1000 hours.

So if left on for 60 days, the total hours operating is 1440 hours.

Voltage flucuates all day, up and down, so lower voltage will increase life, higher voltage will decrease life.

Heat entrapped in the fixture will decrease life.

Also, poor, loose, or corroded contacts in the sockets will create arcing and decrease life of a lamp.

So seems due to the age of the fixture the sockets may be the most likely reason for the burnouts, that when compared to other fixtures left on for the same amount of time, the life of these lamps are shorten.

Will compact fluorescent lamps work or fit in these fixtures? They last 8000-10000+ hours and are very resilent to voltage fluctuations and heat.