We get through light bulbs like they are going out of fashion. Have done for years.
I've always put this down to us having a sub station at the end of the cul-de-sac and regularly getting 250 volts instead of the 230.
Don't know if that is the case?
Anywho, talking to a customer in a different part of town who has the same problem.
Is that over voltage a likely cause? Or might there be a problem with the wiring somewhere that could cause it?
Well filament lamps are sensitive to voltage, and are designed for 240V for the UK market. So 250+ will have a notable effect of shortening their lives.
If it were on only one or two light fittings, then look for other local factors. Vibration (kids playing in a room above etc) will have an effect. Big switching transients from high power appliances / motors / arc welders etc. Don't discount crap bulbs - you can get a bad run, or ones that have not been handled well before your ownership.
Also (at risk of invoking you know who (see thread on this subject from a few years back)), I did have one particular case where a dodgy switch seemed to accelerate bulb failures. (ordinary GLS lamp in a neighbours front room. Lasted roughly two weeks or so on average). After the sith replacement or thereabouts, I also swapped the switch, and normal lifespan ensued after. The only theory I can offer as explanation being a very bouncy switch feeding it multiple switch on surges when cold.
I thought certain ones were out of fashion.
All good stuff. Over voltage and/or vibration and/or duff, badly handled, bulbs are the most likely causes. Switch/wiring being intermittent, causing arcing, is also a possible (as John wrote, multiple surges during switch on, or even during use but that would probably be visually noticeable).
Yes. We used to get through bulbs at quite a rate. Installed a UPS, it went straight into voltage trim mode and stayed there, measured the mains voltage, like yours about 250. called the supply operator, they came round within a couple of hours agreed the voltage and a few days later came back to adjust the tapping on our transformer to the lowest. We now have 240v +/-5v variation and bulbs last far longer.
Our mountain hut is half way between civilisation and a small village. The voltage in the hut varies a huge amount and blows all the bulbs. We've now replaced the incandescents with CFLs that can stand large variations in voltage.
At the last house I lived round the corner to the substation. On moving in we had a large selection of incandescent bulbs. Within a year we had no spares.
In our current house we rarely blew a bulb. normal voltage 230, dropping lower at peak times. TV picture used to shrink visibly, and incandescent bulbs would seem dim at peak times. 240+ volts only in the early hours.
Modern TVs have solved one problem, and CFLs are much less susceptible to varying volts.
A fault external to the premises (corroded or HR neutral in 3 phase aluminium cable (common in the 60s)) could lead to similar problems if the other phases have more load on them.
I've gone the opposite strategy and have a big stock-pile of filament bulbs. Our house is in rural France and occasionally the supply "judders" i.e. the power supply flicks on and off half a dozen times in as many seconds, and that is a real bulb killer (all types). I assume it is when a farm up the road turns on heavy electrical machinery. It also happen prior to a temporary power cut - there is often a brief bit of flickering before the outage.
On one occasion I'd just put in one of those expensive high luminosity CFL's and a few hours later it was dead after such a power supply judder. In my experience CFLs last no longer than old fashioned filament bulbs - certainly in this house. Unlike in England there aren't any 10p CFLs either, the cheapest are around £5 and a waste of money.
Instead of expensive high luminosity CFLs why don't you just have several cheap CFLs? I have mostly triple light fitings that I used to have three 60W incandescents in. Now I get a blaze of light from three 20W CFLs. A while ago the voltage in my street was very very low, such that almost nothing worked. The incandescents had a dull glow. The CFLs seemed as bright as normal. My neighbours who didn't have CFLs were in the dark. I do intend to wire my whole house up for 12 volts DC, for LED lighting. I already have a battery and charger and some LED lights for a security system.
I've got a few of the 60w "equivalent" CFLs in table lamps, they seem hardy enough - though dim. Any CFLs with a higher power rating than that only last as long as filament bulbs. I've got a nice Tiffany lamp over the dining table and that really needs a brighter bulb, so takes a 100w bulb (or equivalent) but for that lamp I've given up on the CFLs. For the price of one CFL I bought ten 100w filament lamps before they disappeared off the shelves.
Years ago there used to be be multi-bulb socket, it had a bayonet fitting like a light bulb but had two sockets each taking a bayonet bulb. I haven't seen anything like that in years. Do they still exist? They'd be ideal to conveniently use two dim CFLs where a single bayonet socket exists.
I suspect you'd need to visit a lot of boot sales to find one in the UK for bayonet cap. IIRC previous discussion here suggested the regulations requiring accessories to conform to BS killed them off in the UK >30 years ago . [They used to be great for plugging the iron into while still being able to see to do the ironing. And there used also to be three-way adapters so you could have the light, iron and telly on at the same time :) And also adapters with a switch on one socket: great as you could grope around under a lamp shade to turn on the switched outlet only to find out the sparky way that there was nothing plugged into that socket, and that it was already on.]
here are loads of E27 lamp socket splitters from HK on Ebay. But please don't blame me if 2 CFLs land on your head.
Still available in my local market, at £1 each. 150W are £1.50 each.
I have a couple. Haven't used them in years
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