home office light bulb issue

I have a home office in my spare bedroom. My overhead light fixture, which just uses one 60W light bulb, blew on Monday. I replaced the light bulb a nd used it yesterday while working. Late last night, I went into my office and when I turned on the light, the new bulb blew. I left it until this m orning. It got me thinking on what could be causing two light bulbs to blo w with 48 hours. It's either the switch or the fixture.

I went out and bought a new wall switch (20A Leviton)and installed it, and replaced the blown lightbulb. It's working now, but for how long, I don't know.

Has anyone had any experience where a bad light switch would cause light bu lbs to blow only upon turn-on? Once the switch is turned on, it seems to w ork fine. I'm an electronic technician by trade, so I understand power concepts, but I haven't heard of a switch causing a spike above the normal AC voltage.

BTW, I checked the line voltage at the lightbulb and its 115 Vac.

Reply to
rlz
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ch just uses one 60W light bulb, blew on Monday. I replaced the light bulb and used it yesterday while working. Late last night, I went into my offi ce and when I turned on the light, the new bulb blew. I left it until this morning. It got me thinking on what could be causing two light bulbs to b low with 48 hours. It's either the switch or the fixture.

d replaced the blown lightbulb. It's working now, but for how long, I don' t know.

bulbs to blow only upon turn-on? Once the switch is turned on, it seems to work fine.

t I haven't heard of a switch causing a spike above the normal AC voltage.

It?s more likely that the problem with the light bulbs is lack of quality control in the manufacturing process. One my jobs is changing light bulbs and I have seen a wide variation in how long a light bulb lasts even though they come from the same package.

Reply to
recyclebinned

Coincidence.

That's my guess. I don't think it's that unusual for a brand new bulb to blow. It was tested at the factory (at least according to How It's Made on TV), but it's new, and it got shaken and moved around on it's way from the factory to your home.

I don't see how any defect in the switch could cause a bulb to blow. It's either going to pass current or not.

Reply to
Dan Espen

It?s more likely that the problem with the light bulbs is lack of quality control in the manufacturing process. One my jobs is changing light bulbs and I have seen a wide variation in how long a light bulb lasts even though they come from the same package.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Agreed, I think it was just bad luck with the replacement bulb. The light switch is simply a set of contacts. There's nothing in there that can cause anything other than maybe a little arcing, worst case, but a good quality light switch shouldn't arc significantly with only a 60W load.

An incandescent bulb failing on turn on is a fairly common failure mode. The resistance of the filament increases dramatically with temperature, meaning that the current drawn on a "cold start" is much higher than normal for a brief period until the filament warms up (which happens in a fraction of a second.)

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel
+1 for the defective bulbs.

I've been in these DIY forums for a long time and it's common for people to buy a package of light bulbs and find that an unusually high number of them burn out in an unusually short period of time.

And, just like you, they presume the problem has to be in the house wiring somewhere.

Reply to
nestork

h just uses one 60W light bulb, blew on Monday. I replaced the light bulb a nd used it yesterday while working. Late last night, I went into my office and when I turned on the light, the new bulb blew. I left it until this mor ning. It got me thinking on what could be causing two light bulbs to blow w ith 48 hours. It's either the switch or the fixture. I went out and bought a new wall switch (20A Leviton)and installed it, and replaced the blown lig htbulb. It's working now, but for how long, I don't know. Has anyone had an y experience where a bad light switch would cause light bulbs to blow only upon turn-on? Once the switch is turned on, it seems to work fine. I'm an e lectronic technician by trade, so I understand power concepts, but I haven' t heard of a switch causing a spike above the normal AC voltage. BTW, I che cked the line voltage at the lightbulb and its 115 Vac.

Thanks everyone for the post. I'm suspecting the light bulbs as well, but the previous owner of this house did shoddy work in the wiring as far as I can tell. When I replaced the switch this morning, I found both ground wir es (live & load) physically attached to the grounding screw. So I disassem bled them, crimped them together while adding a pigtail to attach to the sw itch. I didn't think this was allowed having two ground wires on one groun ding screw.

I also went back and looked at the package of lightbulbs. I think they wer e a cheap brand to start off with.

Robin

Reply to
rlz

It's not. There are screw connections ("backwire") which allow two wires to go under one screw, but I have never seen a ground screw that was anything other than the standard loop the wire under it type.

If this is a metal box, that should also be grounded.

Typically to save space in a situation like that, I will loop one ground wire under the ground screw for the box and leave a couple inches free; then do the same thing with the other wire under the screw on the switch/receptacle, then splice the two together with a yellow wire nut. That way I don't have a bunch of pigtails in the box unnecessarily taking up space. This is assuming, of course, that the installer left enough length on the wires for you to do this.

That's possible too, although I have to say I expect the quality of incandescent bulbs to start dropping if it hasn't already as they are starting to be phased out. I just hope that good high-CRI LED bulbs are available and inexpensive by the time that we can't get incandescents at all anymore. I liked the Philips L-prize bulb but sadly it's been already discontinued - I did managed to snag a couple from HD while they were $15 though.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Robin-

Chances are you had a defective light bulb, as others noted.

If you burn out more bulbs, one other cause could be a loose neutral connection in your power hookup. When that happens, a load imbalance between the two 120 VAC sides of the 240 VAC feed, will result in a high voltage on the side with less load, and low voltage on the side with greater load. (I assume you are in the U.S.)

It is possible for the neutral wire to have an open or high resistance connection at either the power company's transformer, or at your electrical meter.

Fred

Reply to
Fred McKenzie

Hello, AC Service Company.

Uh yea, I'm Dillard Dumbass at 1402 Defected Lane and I'm having trouble with my air conditioner.

What seems to be the problem sir?

It's not cooling, I think it needs a new thermostat.........

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Hello, AC Service Company.

Uh yea, I'm Dillard Dumbass at 1402 Defected Lane and I'm having trouble

with my air conditioner.

What seems to be the problem sir?

It's not cooling, I think it needs a new thermostat.........

TDD

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

No Silly Stormy, "Dufas" is a proper surname, "doofus" is the idiot designation. o_O

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

"The Count of Monty Crisco by Alexandry Dumbass..."

Reply to
Nate Nagel

If it is a metal box and the box is grounded the ground screw is redundant unless it is an isolated ground outlet.

Reply to
clare

Or a blown fuse, or a plugged up condenser, or a bad wire somewhere -

- - -

Reply to
clare

Use a desk lamp. Problem solved.

I hate overhead lighting in an office. At home I have a desk lamp with a four tube florescent type of bulb. At work, only in the early morning of winter do I turn a light on. I get enough light from the two windows.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

I'm an electronic technician by trade, so I understand power concepts,

Thanks everyone for the post.

When I replaced the switch this morning, I found both ground wires (live & load) physically attached to the grounding screw. So I disassembled them, crimped them together while adding a pigtail to attach to the switch. I didn't think this was allowed having two ground wires on one grounding screw.

Robin

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

No Silly Stormy, "Dufas" is a proper surname, "doofus" is the idiot designation. o_O

TDD

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Or a blown fuse, or a plugged up condenser, or a bad wire somewhere -

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I also vote for just bad luck with a defective bulb.

I've never seen a switch cause failure and can't really picture how it would work.

High voltage could, maybe, but I've never run into that either.

What I have seen quite a bit is the center contact in the socket bent down too low. Then people end up screwing the lightbulb in too hard trying to make contact. That can damage the base of the bulb.

You may need to bend that contact out, gently, with the power off, and with a nonconductive tool like a popsickle stick. Then turn the power on, screw the lamp in until it lights, and go 1/8th turn more. Not 1/4, not 1/2. 1/8 is correct.

Reply to
TimR

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