Porch light burns out very fast

Loose wire in the fixture, or the socket itself is loose or corroded, not making good contact with the bulb.

Sounds like a fault in the fixture. Just what I have no idea.

I cured the 'honey, the porch light is out" calls by replacing all yard/porch lights with compact flourescents. Changed from crawling a ladder every 3 or 4 months to a year or more. One fixture has a bulb that I have only replaced once in 10 years.

Harry K

Could easily be the bulb you are putting in or a problem with the fixture. First, is the bulb in the fixture a base up configuration? If so, be sure the bulbs you are putting in are rated for that. Also, there is a product (might be a GE one) that is called "Post Lamp" that are rated for outdoor use. I've found they do last a lot longer in the lamp post then the standard incandescent bulbs.

YMMV.

Those compact fluorescents are going to be the next big environmental mess on the scale of MtBE!

I hear that GE has an incandesent that is at least as efficient as a CFL... Anyone have any details?

As efficient as CFLs are, they are relatively complicated devices. There must be other solutions out there that doesn't involve such a complicated device for such a simple task.

I have seen solar powered flood lights, but of course placement is sort of critical. When you think about it, the standard incandescent is actually very efficient compared to what was used previously. Much safer for the environment then previous as well.

I checked into that. What I read is that ultra-small but measurable amounts of mercury is contained in the CF bulbs. BUT, Coal-fired power plants which predominate in the U.S and Canada spew huge quantities of mercury into the atmospehere and is essentially everwhere in small quantities now. They say that the power saved by using those CF's would remove quanties of mercury from the enviroment that are far, far in excess of the ultra--small quantities of mercury in these CF's wich can be contained either with specific recycling or just in landiflls would be safe compared to the poisons these electric plants spew into the envronment.

I imagine it's all a moot point when the demand for electicithy is increasing around the world. Electricity is convenient and profitable and the human race will usually want it where available. I know I am totally addicted to electricity like most people I rely on it for many things. Keeping the cost of it down is good for business so it's hard to be against it. Hell, if it's in the fish then where else is it?

The only thing on the scope that I know of are LED's and I suspect we will be seeing a lot of them in the next five years. CF's may well go down and be replaced with LED's.

Two things tend to burn out lamps early, water and vibration. A leak somewhere will provide the water. You want to eliminate that. Vibration is also possible. Is that light near some sort of equipment that may vibrate, like the garage door? I suggest you may want to try a CF (compact florescent) or garage door lamp. Both tend to handle vibration better.

Regarding your using the term "burn out"...

I concur with the vibration part, but how does water cause a bulb to "burn out"?

I can see water corroding electrical connections and maybe those connections would cause localized heating at the base of the bulb which could even melt the soldered joint at the base tip and disconnect the bulb, but that won't make the filament "burn out" will it?

A better term to use have been "fail", not "burn out".

Jeff

Frankly I have wondered that myself.

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I doubt that. But they do have a technology that is seems to be about 25% more efficient (for the same or better life). Unfortunately they deployed it in very few bulbs. The only ones that I knew of were PAR38 outdoor flood and T3 quartz halogen bulb to replace 300 watt (used only 225 and put out same light). Unfortunately, neither seems to be available anymore.

Kerosene lamp?

I went through two floodlight bulbs (flagpole lights) before I realized that they were not 'burning out' it was the GFI breaker blowing when rain got into the socket. Now when the light is out, I check the GFI first.

Harry K

One other possibility: What kind of bulbs you are using.

"Standard" 60 watt incandescents are typically rated to last 1,000 hours, and 12 hours a day that means average of 2.5-3 months, some more and some less.

There are longer life and industrial service and traffic signal versions of incandescents.

There are also garbage offbrand ones, such as some from dollar stores. I have seen some dollar store ones from sources who are so bad at having their act together as to claim the same light output in lumens from at least 3 different wattages! Given the performance I have seen from dollar store compact fluorescents (subpar to lousy to bad to outrageously bad in my experience), I have low faith in dollar store lightbulbs in general! Maybe better from Dollar Tree than from other dollar stores, since at Dollar Tree I have seen lack of "brands" that I have experienced as lousier and lack of (*cough-sputter*) dollar store compact fluorescents, but I still don't like the idea of a

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Are you talking about the mercury?

If you use one in an area where much of the electricity comes from coal, a CFL prevents more mercury emission than the amount of mercury that it contains.

Meanwhile, how could they possibly be some big environmental mess compared to all the non-compact fluorescents in use in most commercial, industrial, institutional and government buildings and that found some use in homes?

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

The efficient GE incandescent has less than half the efficiency of a CFL. It is HIR, which is halogen with infrared retroflection technology. An example is a 350 watt tubular halogen with light output close to that of a 500 watt more-ordinary halogen, or close to that of about 150-170 watts of compact fluorescents. It improves upon other incandescents and halogens that have 1/3 or less the efficiency of CFLs.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

This is going to happen, and I like LEDs, but given the rate at which LEDs have been advancing in efficiency and overall cost-effectiveness I think it will be at least a decade before most home lighting is done with LEDs.

LEDs have had incremental advances, so far almost specialty by specialty for now. They work great in flashlights since they excel in lower wattage battery-powered applications, and they excel in traffic signals since incandescents are compromised in efficiency there by long-life design and color filters removing some of their light while LEDs normally prefer to specialize in producing colored light.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Ditto that. I've replaced almost all 60 watt incandescents in my house with 13 watt CFLs, including outdoor porch and deck lights. The only ones not changed were candelabra bulbs and those in dimmer lamps.