Useless light bulbs.

Currently I am changing these new type light bulbs almost weekly, is anyone else having this problem. I did not have it when we had the incandescent bulbs.

The new ones are always Tungsten halogen and dont like burning vertically. I wonder if they get too hot?

The old bulbs are almost extinct but have found one or two in the Pound stores. Of dubious quality I expect.

Clive

I have found the Pound stores ones equally as bad....I recently replaced a reflector type lamp in our kitchen light array and it has only lasted a couple of weeks....

Halogen bulbs are still incandescent, and do get very hot. Make sure there is good ventilation around them, esp. if recessed into the ceiling, including not having loft insulation laid over them. Better to go with LED lights, which run cool, last 50 times as long and use far less electricity. If you go to a good lighting emporium, there will be a good choice of styles, light intensity and colour temperature, and base types.

Geoff

Funnily enough, there is high failure rate with halogen lamps if they don't run hot enough - you can tell if this is the problem, because you'll see a 'sooty' metallic deposit on inside of the glass after failure. High resistance in the wiring can be a cause. I suffered similar in a car I once owned after fitting higher wattage headlamp bulbs (but wiring wasn't really up to it). Maybe not so likely in a domestic setting, but thought I'd mention it.

Do not have the problem, still running on my "last buy" boxes of incandescent lamps, just do not like the "modern" versions, strange colour and "candle" power only.

240v halogen isn't a good idea in my view. The filaments are very thin. I quickly became fed up of a light unit we had in the kitchen that used them. I replaced it with a D light. Life times of the D lights have been mixed but over 2 years so far. The first one I fitted must have been ok for more like 10.

I have several 12v halogen lights about. They seem to last a lot longer. They often specify life times on these bulbs.

John

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The problem is two fold.

First I don't think the quality of the lamps is what it used to be. Partly our / consumer based fault for being price based for many years and encouraging cheap imports and manufacturing.

Second is the design of many fittings. They are designed to took 'pretty' and not consider air flow / cooling factors which dramatically effect lamp life. Add to this they are also consumer price driven.

Nick

I have moved house about a dozen times over my life and in the current house bulbs seem to "last forever" with only a few changes for very heavily used lights

After 8 years the 3 incandescents in the living room chandelier for instance are still fine

Its a 70s house with that heavy insulated copper wire they used back in them days

Maybe a simple wiring system helps with bulb longevity

In the in-laws house the 5 bulb chandelier munches bulbs on a weekly basis

The energy saver lamps don,t like being used vertically with the cap down I,m gradually changing over to LED they seem to last longer I always found that three and five lamp chandeliers ate bulbs like anything

In My opinion Halogen lamps are terrible things when it comes to longevity. Wherever possible I have replaced them with LED equivalents and in the last 7 years have only had to replace one bulb.

Halogen bulbs run extremely hot and I know, from a rather hair raising experience, that when the filaments blow in security lights the wire filament ends can burn right through the glass outer. I had one that blew on the security light above my workshop so, rather foolishly thought, it's just a case of removing the tube/bulb I'll do it now. I never turned off the supply and when I got hold of the tube between my thumb and forefinger I got a hefty jolt of 240 volts from the end of the filament that had burnt through the glass.

Needless to say I never change a bulb without switching off the power to the light in question.

If you don't like the energy savers or LEDs then just go to a decent electrical suppliers and get "rough Duty" lamps. Come in the same shape and wattage as the old GLS lamps

The Warm white LEDs give a reasonable tone of light and in some cases I have found them better that Halogen, The last few bathrooms I have done have all had LEDs with wide angle lenses that give better light spread than halogens and use about 1/10th the power

The linear Q H lamps at church seem to fail fairly frequently, which is awkward as they are so high up. They normally run for more than an hour.

In contrast, the security light outside my garage seems to last fairly well, for several years. Maybe this is because it is only on for short periods, and so does not get so hot.

The 24V 50W Q H worklight on my lathe used to eat bulbs, until I filed two slots on opposite sides of the reflector, to improve ventilation. Since then (asking for trouble!) have had no failures. Just as well as around here, (East Anglia) none of the electrical stockists, trade or retail, seem to stock. Fortunately, when I could, I bought a load for stock.

Maybe the problem is related to: frequency of "switch on", (current surge of cold filament); length of time running; ventilation; or a combination of these factors.

Certainly, normal GLS lamps do not like running cap down, (possibly lacking the ability to dissipate heat into the cap, fitting and wiring?), and are reputed to be designed to run cap down.

All types of Fluorescent lamps are better if left running for long periods; again no doubt, because of the effects of the voltage surge generated by the choke and capacitor to make the tube "strike".

Howard

The MR16 tungsten halogens in our kitchen ceiling lights, 8 of them at 12v 36w have been running for about 12 years without any failures, obviously they are not on all the time, perhaps only and hour / day in the summer and 4 hours / day in the winter and being 12v running off transformers with soft start must have helped, however despite not having any problems with them I've just changed over to LED's.

John

In the months leading up to their "banning" I bought a stock of around 60 off 60W incandescents for use in our 5 set lounge fitting. I still have 47 left.

I have a Philips 20W CFC in our hall which was installed in 1995 and is still going strong, and have other CFC's in other rooms of which I think only one has been changed. On the other hand, I have gone through 8 15W CFC's in our dining room 3 set fitting. The difference? The dining room set were originally pointing upwards. I have now inverted the three arms, and although the fitting is now slightly lower, I haven't had any further failures.

Currently, I appear to have a problem with my car lights. After almost three years from new, both main beam bulbs and now a front park/daylight running bulb have all failed within the last month or so. Most odd.

Peter.

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Showing remarkable consistency in the manufacturing process [?]

MichaelG.

Mains halogens (GU10's) are very sensitive to failure with overvoltage. MTBF remains a matter of a few weeks regardless of supplier.

I know of four halogens in a bathroom that are 12v MR16 fed though an 'electronic' transformer aka switch mode power supply that are at least 15 years old and are still on the original lamps.

I've had a BC compact fluorescent that lasted maybe 40 ms before it went bang.

The last lot of coiled fluorescent bulbs I bought fail with a very impressive bang, often with a shower of broken glass. If they remain intact, they disintegrate when I try to remove them from the holder. Now given up on these and returned to tungsten filament bulbs, they last a long time, they are cheap to buy and the light does not hurt my eyes.

GE have announced that they are to cease manufacture of CFL lamps, and we are now beginning to see the less common types like the two pin halogen and the GU10 halogen begin to appear in led form at reasonable prices. LED saves a fortune in electricity and bulb replacements, the fitting in our kitchen has 5 GU10 bulbs and needed replacements every two to three weeks. Bought 5 led replacements at Lidl for £3-50 each, fitted them and forgot them, also much better light.

Phil

How is it that we've come here? I miss the old fashioned light bulbs. Just dont make'em like they used to!

Michael W

Possibly, Michael, because the EU said no more 'old fashioned' light bulbs???

Mike