I have several spotlight fixtures outside exposed to rain. Spotlight bulbs are around 5 dollars. I went to regular bulbs for pennies, but they burned out quick. Now I find that the spotlights are also going quick. Not sure what to do. I think rain hitting bulb makes them go out. I know freezing will break cheap ones. I may be looking at different lights before long...
You might have a bad neutral. I had that problem, after a new service, a fresh splice on the service entrance and then a new service drop the problem went away. The first half of the service drop was so old and the insulation on the wires so bad that there was heavy duty arcing ever six inches the entire length of the drop. Problem is gone. Do your lights dim whenever the fridge or the microwave come on?
bgott - Did the bad neutral cause all the bulbs to burn out fast or just some of them? The lights dim when the AC kicks on. The frig or microwave doesn't cause them to dim.
We're doing a "careful" study now. When one burns out, I write down the date and what kind of bulb it was. We'll try the different types of bulbs people mentioned here and see if it makes a difference. One is enclosed so it would get hotter. The others are not enclosed though.
There is dimming and then there is dimming. Cutting on the TV would noticeably dim the lights, the fridge or the A/C cutting on or off would make you think someone was sending Morse code. The thing that forced me to fix it was that it was nearly impossible to strike an arc with my welder. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
The lights just flick once when the AC kicks on. Last night I noticed they also flick once, but not as noticable, when the dishwasher is first turned on.
Mosey, I have the exact same problem in this house. We bought this place in the summer of 2001 and in the first 6 months we went through more light bulbs than we did in 7 years in our last house. I got so fed up last summer (after 1 year in the house) that I called the power company. I explained my problem and they actually seem fairly concerned. They said that they would try to get somebody out to check their wiring within 2 days. Their technician pulled in the driveway 1/2 hour after I got off the phone! I thought "oh man, what do they know?". Their technician pulled their meter and took some reading with his digital meter. Then he had me turn everything on at the same time- AC, dishwasher, sprinkling system, microwave, washer, etc. He couldn't believe how balanced the load was and how little voltage drop there was. My house is fed underground, 550 feet from the transformer. So he left confident that it was not their problem. He suggested that I call an electrician to check out my inside wiring (which I still have not done). Anyway the bulbs in the main bathroom, in the kitchen, and in the back room are the worst. By the way all those fixtures were originally on dimmer switches (if that makes a difference). I have since replace the main bathroom with a normal switch but that continues to burn out bulbs faster than any other fixture.
Had the same problems in our house in Maryland. It seemed like we were suddenly replacing bulbs everywhere. I got my volt meter out and checked one of the outlets. I measured 135+ Volts. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
I called the power company. The transformer was on the corner of my property (underground lines). The power company found that the transformer was allowing too much voltage into my house. [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
After adjustment, my problems disappeared---except for two teenagers that couldn't remember to "turn off lights" [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
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