We have a ceiling light fixture in our kitchen that takes two bulbs. Until recently, one of the bulbs had been flickering and going dark, especially when I tightened it all the way. It was 57 watts. Last week I replaced the bulb with a 60-watt bulb, and it has shone steadily, with no outage or flickering. Could it be that the fixture simply does not tolerate sub-standard wattage in bulbs? (I had tested more than one 57-watt bulb in that socket.)
the bulb wattage makes no difference (in this case). it is always important to never put in bulbs higher than the fixture is rated for as a general rule though.
bulb(s) was making bad electrical contact (could be caused by a couple reasons) and the other bulb making good contact. i’ve had brands or packages of substandard bulbs.
I agree with johnpost, bad bulbs. The bulb decides how much current to draw, lower wattage bulbs simply draw less current at the normal voltage. Your fixture doesn’t have to act any differently when presented with a low wattage bulb.
A high wattage bulb is potentially a problem due to over-stressing the wiring or dumping too much heat into the fixture.
Thanks. I enjoyed reading that. No, the fixture can’t tell the difference between a 57 and a 60 watt bulb. Something tells me the 57 watt bulb is a cheap specimen. Bulbs can flicker for a number of reasons. Sometimes the filament is not secured and flops around. Other times the filament is just about to burn out and is merely resting on its contact without being pinched or welded in place. It could also be that the base of your fixture is not making good contact with the center contact of the bulb. Maybe those 57’s you have are marginally shorter. With the power off, you can take a tiny hook made from a paper clip and gently pull the center contact of the fixture up slightly so it makes good contact with the bulb. I have seen cases where the bulb won’t even light up because of no contact and this procedure fixes it. I have even dropped a blob of solder on the bulb or roughed it up to make contact.
The only reason a fixture would care about wattage is that higher wattages produce more heat, and too much heat could damage something (melting plastic, or starting a fire, or whatever). But if you take a fixture rated for a high wattage, and put in a low wattage bulb, it should work just fine (aside from being dimmer, of course).
Something? Why not just Google it? Then you’d know that 57 watt bulbs are marketed as energy savers by the major companies, like GE.
What’s the spec on a 60 Watt bulb, anyway? +/- 10%? +/- 5%? At +/- 5 %, you’d get a range of 57 to 63 watts.
That’s ignoring the Voltage variation (120 Volts, +/- 5 % in the US).