Light bulbs - how to increase their lifespan

In the past six months I'm changing a light bulb in my place on average every two weeks. Even the new ones only last six or so weeks. Can any leccy teccy shed light on this?

Happened to me in England, wrong fuses the prob...u could have wiridoema though...heard it's common here...

Are you buying the cheapies? Pay for the better ones; they last.

Get candles.

Get posh daylight ones from Johnny English

Web link to Daylight bulb Discussion.

I am sure JonnyEnglish will be all too happy to take some cash from you!

Buy energy-saving lightbulbs; they last for months.

Are you changing all the bulbs or just one or two in certain rooms? If it's the former, it sounds like the current (or amp or whatever) is set too high and is blowing them out with too much juice.

If it's just one particular spot, it could be the same problem, or it could be a light that gets a lot of use. Off and on and off many times in short succession.

Rubbish! There is no "setting" for the current, the light bulb itself will always draw the same current (assuming same voltage) that the manufacturer intended. The fuse used makes no difference, that merely limits the *maximum* total current so you don't burn out the cables (and set your place on fire) by connecting 100 bulbs to it.

Are these regular bulbs or the fancy energy saving ones? You should avoid touching the bulb surface with your skin because the grease causes the blub to get hotter than normal during operation. Try handling them with a cloth during installation.

If they are still blowing my next step would be to buy some different brands.

If they still all blow, then get a meter and measure the voltage at the socket, IIRC should be 220V +/- 10%. If it's over 250V then likely your neighbours also will be and also having problems. TIme to contact the electricity supplier then.

I believe the voltage would fall into my "whatever" category. Electricity was never my favourite part of physics.

Turn off the bulbs when you are not using them. That will save them a bit.

My bulbs used to fuse six a month, no matter what I did. They fused everywhere, sitting room, outside, bathroom, chimney, as if I was buying them for fusing or as if they were using me as a vehicle in their pursuit to attain fusion. I was upset. I'm replacing the fused ones with CFL though - nothing fused yet. Technically they can't "fuse" I believe.

One way of increasing incadescent lightbulb life is by fiting dimmers to the lighting circuits. The "soft start" is less of a shock for the lightbulb coil and as a result they last longer. Also you dont need to run the bulbs at full power, which also increases longevity. Failing that then replace incadescent with fluorescent or LED energy saver bulbs.

borrow a cat's eyes and don't use the lights. or go to bed very early.

Thay last forever if you never turn them on.

why dont we all eat more carrots then...

stop blowing them mate, maybe they dont like it when you do it

but if you dont trun them on then how do they blow?

exactly! don't touch the switch.

right, that's enough mad conversations about space time continuums and using cat's eyeballs to save light bulbs. i'm off to fetch myself a nice refreshing augustiner. back soon...

maybe thats why they blow, ever heard about foreplay

I have justed watched a very interesting programme on ZDF..

If you still have problems with the "bulbs" blowing, its worth getting you ladlord to have the whole flat tested out..

Unlike in the UK, if your "Neutral" circuit fails you get 415v across your terminals rather than Null volts..

This causes many things to fail, but a "failing" netral will take light bulbs out first...

Most other domestic applances will cope with a bit extra voltage..

G

A bit of extra voltage! If my neutral fails in Germany I'll get 415V instead of 230V? I suspect that is unlikely. If that happened it would be more than just light bulbs going pop. I rather doubt your average hair dryer would survive more than a few seconds at double its normal operating voltage and the effect would be like using a paint stripper on your hair...Instant perm i should imagine, not to mention that sulforous smell that accompanes frying flesh.

Don't hairdryers cut out if they get too hot? And if you doubled the voltage, wouldn't the fan also run faster, so the air temp would be about the same? It would break though, I'm sure.

OOC what do you mean "the neutral circuit fails"?

Actually I did run a hairdryer on double the voltage by mistake once which is why I know about the instant perm effect. It was set for 110V and I plugged it into 220V... If you dont want to take my advice why dont you try it. Running the fan at twice the speed just burned out the motor but not before the damage was done.
If all circuits are correctly connect to live neutral and earth, then you should only ever get a shock from the live. This works in the UK where plugs only go into sockets one way...which means live and neutral are always correct. With two pin plugs that have no polarity then this does not occur and there is a possibility of shock if you start messing around inside the gadget.

My wife gets through kettles, Irons and hairdryers at an alarming rate.

Does the panel think that some people aren't Leccy friendy and can have an adverse affect of aparatus just by handling them?

I'm just spit-balling here but perhaps the light bulbs blowing might be a reaction to her presence in the apartment.

Everything else that goes wrong in our life is definitely my fault...we established that years ago.

Surely if you plug it in the other way, the risk of shock is the same, just from the neutral inside the device rather than the live?

Still don't understand how I can get 415V out the light socket...

Hmm.. I dont understand this 415V thing either.. i would really like to see an explanation of that...

Anyways, one idea that has not been covered yet in this thread... Are you putting in bulbs that are too high a rating for the fitting? If the fitting states a maximum wattage it is likely because it can only dissipate that much heat. If it cannot dissipate the heat quickly enough then the bulb will get too hot and blow sooner.

I would just get energy saver bulbs. They last for years as opposed to months for normal bulbs.

I suspect it's a conspiracy by manufacturers to make bulbs that fuse quickly because they want people to buy the new technology. I have bright memories of bulbs that used to last really long.

I am no electrician but the 230V is only an RMS figure and that means in simple terms it is averaging out the sinusoidal wave that is the AC. The peak voltage is going to be above 230V but whether it gets up to 415V i doubt. Second possibility is power supplies with different phases. Normally three phase supplies are provided to a building (I know as I had to pay part of the three phase installation in my housing block). Again the three separate supplies will be individually 230V when compared to zero...but if you mix them up and compare them to each other then you can get massive volatage difference.i.e. one supply will be at the peak of its positive cycle (the top of the bump) and the other supply will be out of phase (i.e. at the bottom of the bump going the other way). Together the DIFFERENCE will be way more than 230V and is normally in the order of 450V. I suspect this is where the story of 415V comes from if you F*** up your three phase mains connections.
Alternatively tom17 may be right..putting a 100w bulb in an enclosed lightfitting suited for max40W will certainly cause it to overheat and pop...not to metniton setting fire to the light fitting and ultimately perming your hair teminally.

This may help with the Voltage values..

@tom17, outtolunch

I can't imagine how a 100W bulb can OVERHEAT and fuse if you put it in a socket rated for 40W. If you put a load that draws more current than the rating of its socket, the socket will overheat (to begin with), and you can say the bulb's @$$ will be on fire. But it will not "fuse". A bulb is a reasonable thing afterall.

Go and block all the ventilation from around your prosessor in your Computer... Then lets see how long that lasts... And Processors are very Reasonable... infact very cleaver!

See you next week when you have repaired your computer!!

I dont think we ever mentioned fusing..the original quiery was about bulbs having a short life span. If a bulb overheats because there is not enough cooling in the design of the lamp housing then it is no surprise that it will pop. Unless of course you consider the coil of the incadescent bulb to be equivalent to a fuse.

Well one difference between the coil of a fuse and the coil of a light bulb is in the function. But when they "fuse" ( dictionary : to melt something such as metal or plastic, or become melted at a very high temperature), exactly the same thing happens. A fuse is called a fuse because its job is to fuse. A bulb is not called a fuse because it stops working when it is fused. So long as popping while fusing is concerned, it's the bulb's discretion.

I'll get me coat!

This bored aint wot it ust to be