I have a peculiar problem with the light in my bathroom: when the room gets a certain temperature, the room light goes out. This is a hundred year old house and the wiring is not all that great, but I never heard of a problem like this. Does anybody have any ideas why the light goes out when the room gets hot?
Ron
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W
WM
ghosts.
A
Art
Is it recessed light fixture which has builtin protection against overheating?
R
Ron
In this house, that's a distinct possibility.
R
Ron
No, it's just an ordinary old light socket like those found everywhere in old(er) houses, which is why I'm so puzzled about this.
Ron
J
Jeff Wisnia
Sometimes the bulb base tip is just a bit too short to press firmly against the socket's center contact and when things get warm and expand the electrical contact is lost.
Try this:
TURN THE LIGHT OFF!
Remove the bulb and see if there's a center tab at the bottom of the socket hole under which you can hook the bent tip of an opened paper clip and pull out a bit.
If the center contact in the socket won't bend out, then try changing the light bulb or putting a drop of solder on the center contact of the present bulb's base to lengthen it a bit.
Failing that:
Pull the socket down and tighten the wire terminal screws.
If it's a socket with a pull chain operated switch the switch contacts may have gotten flakey, get a nerw socket.
HTH,
Jeff
J
Joseph Meehan
Just on the chance that some Buba has mis-wired the circuit, turn the breaker off or remove the fuse.
H
hallerb
Fixed 2 like these recently.
Dont mess around just replace the sockets!
NEVER STICK ANYTHING IN A SOCKET SINCE MANY ARE NOT WIRED RIGHT!
REMOVE FUSE OR SHUT OFF BREAKER!
N
nothermark
heat causes metal to expand. Expanding metal can open a circuit. Sounds like you have a loose connection somewhere. I'd start with the fixtures and switches.
J
Jeff Wisnia
Yea, you and Joseph are correct, I should have told him to first PROPERLY FIND and open the CORRECT breaker or pull the CORRECT fuse.
I'm guilty of thinking it'd be me doing it, and thus I wouldn't worry about getting a shock because I'd be standing on a wooden ladder placed on a wood floor with nothing nearby at ground potential. And I'd be playing pocket pool with my left hand.
And, if the light switch were in it's OFF position there'd be no chance of a metal tool arcing from the center contact to the shell of the socket even if it WERE miswired.
Jeff (Who was alive back when it was commonplace to test for the presence of 120 volts with a dry finger.)
J
Joseph Meehan
Jeff Wisnia wrote: ..
I figured that.
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