blowing bulbs again and again

[TwoBells]

Hey all

I have a real problem, about two years ago, I noticed my lightbulbs were blowing throughout the house. The lights concerned use standard bayonets, R50. R63 & R80 spots. I have tried the cheap to the most expensive using the correct wattage. Even going as far as using circuit diagnostic software to check for faults....the circuit is fine very good quality..yet the bulbs keep blowing! Each of the lights concerned got a thorough check On average I get through a 2 be apartments worth every 3 months. The apartment consists of 3-spot lights in the kitchen, bedrooms and study, and a 5 spot rack in the lounge. The hallways and bathroom use the long power-savers which are fine.

If you can offer any help I'd really appreciate it...

regards

tb

[Ian_m]

My mate had same issue, living in the country where the voltage was on the high side of 240V and used to take out 230V European items (including oven element) on a regular basis. Fitted soft starters (TLC) to his 230V kitchen downlighters seriously reduced the no of blown bulbs before changing the lot to 12V downlighters and had no blown bulbs since.

So is your voltage too high ?

[systemtek]

Very common question, putting quality bulbs in "will" help (Osram etc) they are designed to take the voltage tolerance of 230 V +10%/=E2=88=926% (216.2 V to 253 V) that we have in the UK some of the cheepo ones are not as good.

Also movement above will affect them as well, these days floors are so thin, people moving about normally above you will degrade the life of a bulb as its been slightly moved etc. If there isnt a room above your bulbs then, this wont matter. In my case the R80's downstairs blew quite often, Osram ones lasted a lot longer, but cost more, i did replace some fittings for new ones as they looked tatty, this also helped in my case. When you say you tested them, just wonder how ? how old is the wireing etc ?