On Mar 18, 7:34 pm, Terry wrote:
On Mar 15, 3:24 am, bud-- wrote:



Doug Miller wrote:
In article , "Joseph Meehan" wrote:
"Doug Miller" wrote in message
t...
In article , "Joseph Meehan"
wrote:
"Doug Miller" wrote in message
igy.net...
In article , "Joseph Meehan"
wrote:
Missed an important one

A floating neutral. This is a serious safety issue. It can cause
a
fire. It should have been listed first.

A floating neutral causes enough other -- and more dramatic and
widespread --
symptoms that, in the absence of those other symptoms, it does not merit
consideration when the only observed symptom is short bulb life in a
*single*
socket.

I disagree. If that floating neutral is pairing one light bulb say
with
a refrigerator it it may not cause an apparent symptoms on the other line
but it can still be a danger and a cause.
.
Sure, that's a typical circuit: refrigerator, *one* light fixture, and
nothing
else. Uh-huh.

While I have seen such a circuit more than once, especially with
freezers, where owners want to make sure the power is still on, I did not
indicate both the lamp and the frig on the same circuit, but rather paired
on opposite legs of two circuits sharing a neutral. My answer would also
apply if many other items were on that same circuit pair, but if the other
devices were not sensitive to voltage swings or were not high amp users.

Oh, yeah, that's even *more* common. Uh-huh. Keep reaching.

I find Joseph's idea entirely reasonable. His original post was "say
with" - an illustration. There are lots of possibilities of 2 circuits
with loose common neutral. Like 2 general purpose circuits with a light
on one and a heater on the other. Doesn't have to be only a light on one
circuit, just that the light be all that is on, or as Joseph wrote, all
that is sensitive.

--
bud--

If the unbalanced load of one circuit is going thru the lamp and
burning it out, where is it going when the light is off?

You should have lights and appliances. When the appliances are off
where is it going?

BTW a good volt meter would tell you with one reading if this was
happening