Incandescent garage bulb turns off immediately after being turned on

[Roy]

=3D=3D Elementary, my dear Watson. =3D=3D

[Don Klipstein]

I have seen this before a few times. Always so far, the switch was going bad.

Replace the switch. In some cases, I was able to cause sustained arcs in such cranky switches by moving them slowly. That apears to me to be a slight fire hazard. I have yet to hear of a fire starting that way, but switches like those make me uneasy.

[Don Klipstein]

Many are still using incandescents. Some don't like the slightly different color rendering of CFLs, some don't like the light pattern with some fixtures, some don't like the need of many CFLs to warm up, some don't like the mercury, some had bad experiences, some are penny-smart pound-foolish with the upfront price, and some would go against gubmint and do-gooders telling them what kind of lightbulbs to use.

Personally, I use CFLs and I am happy with them.

Meanwhile, my experience with this symptom tells me that the problem is a switch going bad, which changing to a CFL will not fix.

[Don Klipstein]

Oven lights are not that uncommon. 40 watt appliance and "home oven" incandescents are rated to go in those. There are even also 100 watt "commercial oven" incandescents, maybe a few other wattages. My family has even had a few ovens that use those. I have also seen at least one illuminated electric convection oven, and the bulb there appears to me to be subject to some of the heat.

I have not seen many illuminated freezers, but most refrigerators have interior lights. Have you seen how much light is produced by a 35 or 40 degree F CFL that needs to be seen by before it warms up? And what is the economy of more-energy-efficient bulbs with higher upfront cost and/or starting-related wear if they are used only minutes per day?

CFLs also usually don't do well in motion sensor outdoor lights, due mostly to short on-time.

[krw]

I have no CFLs in my house and it'll stay that way as long as possible.

Yes (though with this one it's an LED), and yes (incandescent). Not weird at all.

How do you know the light in your 'fridge go out when you close the door?

[Don Klipstein]

Cold cathode CFLs don't get around temperature restrictions on achieving a mercury vapor concentration that is between insufficient and excessive. Most of those also have electronics that must not be overheated. And it is the mercury vapor concentration that causes a CFL to be dim when the temperature is wrong.

What "cold cathode" is good for:

1: Longer life, especially at lower wattages where hot cathodes are smaller and have accordingly shorter life.

2: Lack of starting related wear. Hot cathodes have to be in a specific temperature range to work properly, while cold cathodes do not. Cold cathode CFLs can even be blinked, and are often used in chasing marquee lights in Las Vegas. Most cold cathode CFLs are also dimmable, since one of the obstacles to dimming of hot cathode CFLs is cathode insufficiently hot during dimming. (Another dimming obstacle is what kind of electric load the CFL is, according to the nature of the ballast in the CFL.)

The downside of cold cathode: The cold cathode has higher losses than the hot cathode, so a cold cathode CFL is not as efficient as a hot cathode one, even for the same wattage (especially 7 watts or more). However, cold cathode CFLs are still around 2.5-3 times as efficient as better incandescents of the same light output. An 8 watt cold cathode CFL is likely to match the light output of a 25 watt incandescent.

Cold cathode CFLs make good "bright nightlights". However, beware that they will fade, and may produce about or somewhat over half as much light after 25,000 operating hours as they do when they are new. Cathode technology does not stop the phosphor from deteriorating.

[Bob Villa]

Because it turns-off just before the door closes!

[TimR]

Looks like it was the switch.

But the mashed center contact problem is fairly common too, and leads to early lamp failure.

Once you've screwed one bulb in too far and mashed that contact flat, you have to keep doing it, and that stresses the glass to metal connection. Or so I speculate. Most of the time I've had people complain about premature incandescent failure (blaming it on the house current) it's been the contact.

I use a dry popsicle stick to bend them out. The paper clip should be safe with the power off but I've never trusted it. Then, the lamp should be screwed in the first time with the power on. Once it lights, only an eighth turn more (most people use a quarter turn or more).