Okay, I am tired of climbing a ladder to replace my outdoor lights. I have two next to my entrance and two next to my garage. I guess they are called ‘carriage’ style lights, typcial on many homes.
Powered by the ubiquitois 60W generic or brand name incadescent bulb, these outdoor wonders last about three weeks, maybe five with some luck. They burn about 8 hours per night.
Now, inside I have the same bulbs that have been in some fixtures for three years, and they are on every night, sometimes for 4plus hours. I know this because they are in my family room and kitchen, and they haven’t quit since they were installed. for example, in a sconce I have a 60w bulb, and we have never taken the sconce cover off and replaced the bulb since my son was born three years ago. My family room lights (plus sconce)are on at least 4 hours a day on average.
Is weather affecting my outside bulbs? If so, how?
Your indoor lights are in a relatively controlled environment, operating without extremes. The air temperature and humidity is relatively constant, the bulbs are not exposed (directly or indirectly) to winds, rains, sunlight and other changing weather conditions.
OTOH, the outside bulbs endure all those factors the indoor bulbs do not. In short, they are stressed more and fail faster.
Take a look at people who spend most of their lives working indoors and compare them to folks who work outdoors. Notwithstanding hereditary factors and physical exercise, outdoor folks appear to age just that much faster than indoor folks. Constant exposure to the elements affects people as well as things.
Of course, all this could be bunk and its really the kid down the street sneaking up to your home at night replacing your bulbs with crappy ones just to annoy you …
I thought the same thing, but the filament(?) is inside glass, and was wondering exactly how the filament could be affected by temps (humidty can’t be an issue if it’s sealed up)…
…if the filament and temp issue is even the real issue.
I have exactly the same problem. I think the problem is not that the filament wears out from normal wear & tear, but that the temperature changes stress the glass (possibly in the base since the metal would act as a temperature conductor), and there are micro-cracks somewhere in the glass. As soon as oxygen gets inside the bulb, the filament burns up.
To combat this, I started using halogen bulbs (not the kind in special lights, but a halogen bulb in a conventional screw base) which have much thicker glass walls. These bulbs are rated indoor/outdoor, and are even guaranteed to last a certain amount of time. I get much longer life out of those than conventional bulbs but still not anywhere near the guaranteed life. I have been too lazy to try and collect on the guarantee everytime one burns out, though.
My guess is that metal stress on the filament (what usually causes a bulb to die, AFAIK) is worsened outdoors because of the heat expansion caused by the greater temperature difference.
Philster, heat can go through glass. That’s why light bulbs get hot on the outside! Crafter, I’m guessing (and I would hope dearly) that headlights are made to be much more robust, and are specifically designed to survive under outdoor conditions.
But if the “filament temperature stress” theory is true, why not make outdoor light bulbs as robust as automobile headlights? I recently purchased a headlight for my Mustang. The price was around $6. I’m confident it will last 4 or 5 years, even through the harsh Ohio winters. I’m sure Philster would gladly pay $6 for an outdoor bulb that lasts 4 or 5 years…
Sounds like a great science fair project-take some bulbs and expose them to hot-cold cycles, and some control bulbs. Comontrast how long they last.
My outdoor bulbs haven’t needed to be changed in >4 years, but I don’t have them on that much.
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99.9% bulbs die when I firt turn them on. Could some sort of current limiter circuit be put in lamps to ensure the bulbs get started gradually?
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Oddly enough, bad connections at the socket can shorten bulb life, especially if the bulb is burning base-up, which seems to be the popular way in outdoor fixtures - this makes it so you can just reach up and change the bulb, and so any water that gets on the bulb drains away from the socket. At any rate, check the socket itself to see that it’s not corroded, and check the wire connections at the socket - you’ll need to do some disassembly of the fixtures to do this.
Vibration, yes
More extreme temps, yes
Hot spots and shock from water drops and bug hits, yes
Want them to last, screen the openings for bugs, allow no rain to splash water onto the bulb, and put them on a rheostat so that they are brought online slowly both in the on and off direction. Also set them just below full power.
The slight loss of efficiency should not be a cost factor in the usual home.
Three seconds a day to consistently turn them on and off carefully will make a world of difference.
If on a timer, you can buy gizmos that will light them up slowly but the price will take a while to amortized by the bulb savings.
Very difficult bulbs to get to for changing purposes are a more likely candidate for the conversion.
Putting a rheostat in the circuit after the timer might be a more viable solution as one set just a bit lower than full voltage will significantly increase the life of the bulb.
You can get flourescent bulbs that fit in regular sockets. I had the same problem with my porch light, but since I installed the flourescent last year I haven’t changed it again.
Ditto on the fluorescent. We used to change our porch lights every couple of months. We put those squat fluorescent spiral bulbs in about a year and a half ago and haven’t thought twice about them.
People compare automobile headlights to light bulbs, then people mention that they use halogen lights on their house (and they last longer), but no one yet connects the two? Every automobile headlight I’ve ever bought has been a halogen light. That’s the difference between them and the 60-watt incandescents that burn out all the time.
Why would temp changes affect the filament much, since it is enclosed in a partial vacuum?
Unless the temp changes somehow were able to unseal the bulb, then it would go downhill from there quite quickly. Can you try breaking one of the burnt-out bulbs and see if it makes a hearty “POP” as it implodes?
The answer is simple, I don’t think any ones got it quite right yet. The bulbs outside are obviously at a lower temp, at a lower temp the filament has a much lower resistance, meaning when you turn them on you get a surge of charge which blows the light bulb.
This is also the reason why light bulbs only blow when you first turn them on.
