Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms because
it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any ideas? No
such problem in other rooms.

On Mar 12, 6:35�am, " Frank" wrote:
Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms because
it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any ideas? No
such problem in other rooms.

bad socket thats overheating and thats a safety fire risk issue.

or the fixture could be over lamped, with too may watts in it.

" Frank" wrote in message
. ..
Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms
because it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any
ideas? No such problem in other rooms.


Excessive vibration, loose contacts in socket, tenant plays basketball in
house and keeps hitting the light fixture. Change the light fixture or try
a rough service bulb.

On Mar 12, 6:47�am, "John Grabowski" wrote:
" Frank" wrote in message

. ..

Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms
because it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any
ideas? No such problem in other rooms.

Excessive vibration, loose contacts in socket, tenant plays basketball in
house and keeps hitting the light fixture. �Change the light fixture or try
a rough service bulb.

or a 130 volt bulb, or compact fluroscent.

my guess bad over heating socket

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:35:20 -0700, " Frank"
wrote:

Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms because
it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any ideas? No
such problem in other rooms.


Inspect the socket and check the voltage.

Get an electrician to take a look at it. Possibly a short. I;d also
recommend to start using CFCs
http://bigcountryhomepage.com/phpBB2/index.php

On Mar 12, 11:42*am, Phisherman wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:35:20 -0700, " * * * * *Frank"

wrote:
Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms because
it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any ideas? No
such problem in other rooms.

Inspect the socket and check the voltage.

wrote:
Get an electrician to take a look at it. Possibly a short

I'd like to hear your explanation of how "a short" acts to burn out a
light bulb.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.




.. I;d also
recommend to start using CFCs
http://bigcountryhomepage.com/phpBB2/index.php

On Mar 12, 11:42 am, Phisherman wrote:

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:35:20 -0700, " Frank"

wrote:

Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms because
it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any ideas? No
such problem in other rooms.

Inspect the socket and check the voltage.

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:10:25 -0500, Jeff Wisnia wrote:
wrote:
Get an electrician to take a look at it. Possibly a short

I'd like to hear your explanation of how "a short" acts to burn out a
light bulb.

There's stray wire running from the 440 up at the telephone pole down to his
light socket. Funny how nobody has noticed it before.


Seriously, the primary causes of short incadescent light bulb lifespan are
1) too much voltage (an AC voltmeter can check this)
2) too much heat
3) too much vibration (unfrosted bulbs can handle heat and
vibration better as they run cooler)
4) poor quality light bulbs.

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:22:23 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Get an electrician to take a look at it. Possibly a short. I;d also
recommend to start using CFCs
http://bigcountryhomepage.com/phpBB2/index.php

On Mar 12, 11:42Â*am, Phisherman wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:35:20 -0700, " Â* Â* Â* Â* Â*Frank"

wrote:
Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms because
it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any ideas? No
such problem in other rooms.

Inspect the socket and check the voltage.


Its a lot easier and cheaper just to replace the socket. See if that
helps.

" Frank" wrote in message
. ..
Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms
because it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any
ideas? No such problem in other rooms.


Another possibility:

The metal tab at the base of the socket could be pushed down from
over-tightening a previous bulb, such that there exists an air gap between
the tab and the base of the replacement bulb, causing current arcing, which
then causes premature bulb failure.

Turn the circuit breaker off to the socket, use needlenose plyers to reach
in and gently raise the metal tab to its original position.

Do not overtighten new light bulb.

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:52:07 -0400, Dimitrios Paskoudniakis wrote:

" Frank" wrote in message
...
Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms
because it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any
ideas? No such problem in other rooms.


Another possibility:

The metal tab at the base of the socket could be pushed down from
over-tightening a previous bulb, such that there exists an air gap between
the tab and the base of the replacement bulb, causing current arcing, which
then causes premature bulb failure.

Turn the circuit breaker off to the socket, use needlenose plyers to reach
in and gently raise the metal tab to its original position.

Do not overtighten new light bulb.

bull****. You can't push the contact so far in that it loses contact with an
inserted light bulb. There's the bottom of the socket behind the contact. All
an overtightened light bulb will do is squeeze the contact between the light
bulb and the bottom of the socket.

Your suggestion is likely to product the arcing you are trying to eliminate by
separating the contact from the bottom of the socket and producing a loose
contact.

In , AZ Nomad
wrote in part:

On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:52:07 -0400, Dimitrios Paskoudniakis wrote:

Another possibility:

The metal tab at the base of the socket could be pushed down from
over-tightening a previous bulb, such that there exists an air gap between
the tab and the base of the replacement bulb, causing current arcing, which
then causes premature bulb failure.

Turn the circuit breaker off to the socket, use needlenose plyers to reach
in and gently raise the metal tab to its original position.

Do not overtighten new light bulb.

bull****. You can't push the contact so far in that it loses contact with an
inserted light bulb. There's the bottom of the socket behind the contact. All
an overtightened light bulb will do is squeeze the contact between the light
bulb and the bottom of the socket.

I have caused this problem myself many years ago. Not all sockets are
made so that the tab is stopped from moving further by socket structure
before it is out of reach of some or many lightbulbs.

There is another thing to chek for: The tab may be corroded. Arcing
may corrode the tip contact of lightbulbs. Sometimes the corrosion is
easy enough to scrub off with fine sandpaper (with the breaker off -
verify that flipping the breaker on and off turns that socket on and off).

- Don Klipstein )

"AZ Nomad" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:52:07 -0400, Dimitrios Paskoudniakis
wrote:

" Frank" wrote in message
m...
Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms
because it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any
ideas? No such problem in other rooms.


Another possibility:

The metal tab at the base of the socket could be pushed down from
over-tightening a previous bulb, such that there exists an air gap between
the tab and the base of the replacement bulb, causing current arcing,
which
then causes premature bulb failure.

Turn the circuit breaker off to the socket, use needlenose plyers to reach
in and gently raise the metal tab to its original position.

Do not overtighten new light bulb.

bull****. You can't push the contact so far in that it loses contact with
an
inserted light bulb. There's the bottom of the socket behind the contact.
All
an overtightened light bulb will do is squeeze the contact between the
light
bulb and the bottom of the socket.

Your suggestion is likely to product the arcing you are trying to
eliminate by
separating the contact from the bottom of the socket and producing a loose
contact.


Hey Mr. Bull****, check
http://www.askthebuilder.com/EM0017_..._Quickly.shtml

On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:00:15 -0400, Dimitrios Paskoudniakis wrote:

"AZ Nomad" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:52:07 -0400, Dimitrios Paskoudniakis
wrote:

" Frank" wrote in message
om...
Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms
because it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any
ideas? No such problem in other rooms.


Another possibility:

The metal tab at the base of the socket could be pushed down from
over-tightening a previous bulb, such that there exists an air gap between
the tab and the base of the replacement bulb, causing current arcing,
which
then causes premature bulb failure.

Turn the circuit breaker off to the socket, use needlenose plyers to reach
in and gently raise the metal tab to its original position.

Do not overtighten new light bulb.

bull****. You can't push the contact so far in that it loses contact with
an
inserted light bulb. There's the bottom of the socket behind the contact.
All
an overtightened light bulb will do is squeeze the contact between the
light
bulb and the bottom of the socket.

Your suggestion is likely to product the arcing you are trying to
eliminate by
separating the contact from the bottom of the socket and producing a loose
contact.


Hey Mr. Bull****, check
http://www.askthebuilder.com/EM0017_..._Quickly.shtml


Why don't you take a reading comprehension course? The article states that
if you don't tighten the socket, the bulb can ark and the solder at
the base OF THE BULB can melt. It doesn't state that there is anything wrong
with tightening the bulb fully or that you should leave it a little loose.
It states quite the opposite.

"You will quickly notice that the bottom of most light bulbs has a small droplet
of solder in the center of the base. More importantly the size of this drop of
solder is not consistent from light bulb to light bulb. It is close in size, but
not always the same size or height.

If the brass tab at the base of the socket does not make firm contact with the
bottom of the light bulb, a small electrical arc can happen that starts to melt
the solder. Over a period of time, the solder can deform and the gap between the
solder and the brass tab gets larger."

The rest of the article repeats the idiotic advice of reaching in and
bending the tab. It is a non-sequitir. Pulling the tab away from the
bottom of the socket will result in a poorer connection.

In article , AZ Nomad wrote:

The rest of the article repeats the idiotic advice of reaching in and
bending the tab. It is a non-sequitir. Pulling the tab away from the
bottom of the socket will result in a poorer connection.

Maybe you oughta stick to topics on which you have some actual knowledge.
Bending the tab away from the bottom of the socket results in a *better*
connection, not worse.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

In article , AZ Nomad wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:52:07 -0400, Dimitrios Paskoudniakis
wrote:

" Frank" wrote in message
m...
Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms
because it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any
ideas? No such problem in other rooms.


Another possibility:

The metal tab at the base of the socket could be pushed down from
over-tightening a previous bulb, such that there exists an air gap between
the tab and the base of the replacement bulb, causing current arcing, which
then causes premature bulb failure.

Turn the circuit breaker off to the socket, use needlenose plyers to reach
in and gently raise the metal tab to its original position.

Do not overtighten new light bulb.

bull****. You can't push the contact so far in that it loses contact with an
inserted light bulb. There's the bottom of the socket behind the contact. All
an overtightened light bulb will do is squeeze the contact between the light
bulb and the bottom of the socket.

Because it's never happened to you, it must be impossible, eh?

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

On Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:53:44 GMT, Doug Miller wrote:
In article , AZ Nomad wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:52:07 -0400, Dimitrios Paskoudniakis
wrote:

" Frank" wrote in message
om...
Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms
because it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any
ideas? No such problem in other rooms.


Another possibility:

The metal tab at the base of the socket could be pushed down from
over-tightening a previous bulb, such that there exists an air gap between
the tab and the base of the replacement bulb, causing current arcing, which
then causes premature bulb failure.

Turn the circuit breaker off to the socket, use needlenose plyers to reach
in and gently raise the metal tab to its original position.

Do not overtighten new light bulb.

bull****. You can't push the contact so far in that it loses contact with an
inserted light bulb. There's the bottom of the socket behind the contact. All
an overtightened light bulb will do is squeeze the contact between the light
bulb and the bottom of the socket.

Because it's never happened to you, it must be impossible, eh?

In forty years? Yes.

The technology is far older and unchanging because it works, is cheap,
and there's little reason to change it. You don't have a tab
hanging in mid air to contact the lightbulb.

In article , AZ Nomad wrote:
On Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:53:44 GMT, Doug Miller wrote:
In article , AZ Nomad
wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:52:07 -0400, Dimitrios Paskoudniakis
wrote:

" Frank" wrote in message
news:_JydnXEsQ4xnIkranZ2dnUVZ_jidnZ2d@comcast. com...
Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms
because it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any
ideas? No such problem in other rooms.


Another possibility:

The metal tab at the base of the socket could be pushed down from
over-tightening a previous bulb, such that there exists an air gap between
the tab and the base of the replacement bulb, causing current arcing, which
then causes premature bulb failure.

Turn the circuit breaker off to the socket, use needlenose plyers to reach
in and gently raise the metal tab to its original position.

Do not overtighten new light bulb.

bull****. You can't push the contact so far in that it loses contact with an
inserted light bulb. There's the bottom of the socket behind the contact.
All
an overtightened light bulb will do is squeeze the contact between the light
bulb and the bottom of the socket.

Because it's never happened to you, it must be impossible, eh?

In forty years? Yes.

Guess again, pal. It *does* happen, and just because you've never seen it,
does *not* mean that it can't happen.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

" Frank" wrote in message
. ..
Tenant said they have to replace the light bulb in one of the rooms
because it keeps on burning out. Its incandescent on a 120V circuit, any
ideas? No such problem in other rooms.


I'm the OP and found the problem the other day, turns out the bulbs were not
burned out after all. The screw in socket was very tight so the bulb was not
able to seat completely down to make electrical contact - properly do to
rust from the salty air. The property is located close to the Pacific Ocean.
A little Vaseline on the thread and pulling the hot center tap out a little
bit had solved the problem. Regarding the salty air, I also needed to
replace the exterior door bell button once every three or so years as the
contact fail to conduct due to corrosion.