Light Bulbs Burning Out Quickly

For some reason, I had a light fixture that had bulbs that did not seem to last very long. This caused me great frustration and I started to do some detective work to figure out why my bulbs kept burning out.

To start with, I first checked the packaging that the light bulbs came in. They packaging listed the average life expectancy for the bulbs. Now normally a light bulb will last about 900 hours. The light fixture I was having problems with was in the family room. If that light was on 5 hours a day, the bulbs should last about 6 months. Now I was getting about 1 month on the bulbs so I kept on checking.

I knew that too much voltage going into the fixture can shorten the live of bulbs. I used a multi-meter tester to verify that the voltage was 125. It does not take too much voltage to significantly reduce a light bulbs life. A little as 7 additional volts will reduce the bulb life in half. My voltage came in at 131 so I decided to swap out the bulbs for slight over-voltage bulbs (125V or 130V). These were difficult to track down but I found a source on the internet.

Another cause for bulbs burning out is due to heat build up. If you install a 60 watt bulb into a 40 watt fixture and surround the bulb with an enclosed fixture such as a glass globe, heat will build up. If the bulb temperature increases too much, the bulb burns out. I made sure that my new bulbs matched the recommended wattage.

Another common area for heat buildup is with recessed lighting fixtures. These often get covered by attic insulation. This blocks the fixtures ventilation method causing heat to build up around the bulb. To correct, make sure that the fixture is designed to be in contact with insulation or remove the insulation from around the existing fixture. Unfortunately this was not applicable to my problem.

Another problem that causes bulbs to burn out is vibration. Bulbs installed on an out of balance ceiling fan or near an area of high traffic will reduce the life expectancy of the bulbs. Now my problem was with a ceiling fan and it was directly under my son's bedroom. I used specially designed fan weights to balance the fan. I picked them up at the hardware store. As for my son and his jumping, that's another story...

If you problem is caused by vibration, swap out the bulbs for special shock resistant or rough service bulbs.

Finally flickering can shorten the life of light bulb. An intermittent electrical contact is often the cause flickering and can be caused by a bad wiring or a bad light socket. Correcting flickering is usually beyond the average do it yourself person. If the wiring for the light is good, you should call in an electrical professional as a bad electrical connection can cause a fire.

For me, swapping out the bulbs and balancing the fan seems to have done the trick.