This is interesting that someone brought this up. It seems that I am not
the only one with these lamps failing more often in the bathroom.

I am using compact fluorescents all over our home, my in-laws home, and
at my parents home. The only places where they are not used, are in
locations with dimmers, or for antique type lighting fixtures (only a
few around the place for fancy).

I found some of the low cost ones to fail more often. The ones that I
bought at the regular price under a well known brand name lasted very
long. I have a 15 Watt one in our living room that is sharing on a UPS
with a FAX and a computer. (The idea is to also have a light source
during power failures) These devices including the lamp are running
24/7. The lamp is starting its 3rd year. This makes it running for more
than 16,000 hours, which makes it a "lucky lamp".

The one in our kitchen was an expensive one that was bought about 5
years ago. This one is still running, but it is only on when someone is
in the kitchen.

As for the bathroom, this is another story. This lamp is not lasting
more than about 4 to 6 months. I am starting to think it must be the
combination of the heat and the humidity from when people are taking
showers. I found that the old style incandescent lamp is the best type
for the bathroom, until I can find another solution.

At the other homes where we installed the compact fluorescent lamps, we
are having the same types of failures in the bathrooms. In all the other
parts of our homes, these are more than paying for themselves.

--

Jerry G.
======

"Peter E. Orban" wrote in message
...
Hi Everyone,

We replaced most of our incandescent light bulbs with compact
fluorescent bulbs about a year and a half ago (it was before the NA
blackout last year). The bulbs are holding up fine, except in the
bathrooms, and I am wondering what could be the reason.

The fixtures have five (three in the powder room) bulbs in parallel, and
we use the 7W (40W equivalent) bulbs. We have lost about five bulbs
since last year, all of them the 7W variety, four in the five-light
fixture, one in the three-light fixture. I do not think they lasted more
than 100 hours max, and they are guaranteed for 5000 hours. The same
size bulbs in table lights so far are ok.

I am wondering what could be the reason for such a high rate of failure?
Is it possible that the powering up event of three or five lights in
parallel produces more transients, or something like that?
There is also more moisture for short periods of time in the bathroom,
but not in the powder room.
I have double checked the wiring of the fixtures, they are wired
correctly, for live and neutral, with the ground attached.

They are also selling similar bulbs, specifically for vanities, about
2.5 times the cost of the regular ones. They only seem to have the
balloon shaped and sized differently around the spiral. I would be
surprised if there were any other differences between them.

Any comment on the above?

--
Peter E. Orban
National Research Council of Canada
e-mail: