In article , Boden wrote:

Charles Bishop wrote:
A building I'm working at has some brick lights - j-boxes recessed into a
wall, and a cover plate on them - that illuminate walkways. The owners
have changed the incandescent bulbs to fluorescent.

I saw a note on the cover of a light that said the tested voltage was 130V.

Would a fluorescent light (small twisty bulb) be able to take 130V? Will
this voltage affect the life of the bulb?

I haven't tested to see if the voltage is indeed 130V, Thought I'd ask
here first in case there was something else I should look at, such as the
model number of the bulb.

Did the note actually say that 130 v is a measured value? In a small
enclosure like you describe using 130 v lamps on 120 v gives a
significant increase in lamp life, typically 2.5 x longer life. Yes, it
won't be as bright, but will still be adequate to illuminate a walkway.

CFLs in small enclosures fail quite quickly in my experience. They
don't have much life at high temperatures.

It was in pencil on the outside metal of the cover plate. Along with a
1969 date. I don't have any assurance that the measurement had any
accuracy, since I don't know how it was taken. I was a bit surprised by
the figure so I asked here. I've since measured the voltage with my small
VOM and I got a value of about 120, but dont know how accurate mine is. I
did get the same value on the outlets in the interior hallways.

In general, I'm still curious about the 130V. It was on several of the
covers, as if it had been a deliberate test to verify the voltage in these
boxes. I was wondering if 130V could have been usual, or there for a
reason in 1969, 40 years ago.

charles, you need the higher voltage to get the electrons up to the 18th
floor, bishop