The hallway light upstairs goes through bulbs like candy. We leave it on overnight for my 5 yo daughter whos room is upstairs. We went through regular bulbs in two or three weeks. So I put a fluorescent buld up there. It lasted three days before it went out. So, I bought a new fixture and just installed it today. I just realized (for some reason) that I forgot to attach the plain copper wire to the ground. I have two questions:
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[li]I’m going to take it back down and attach the wire, but what is the possible risk of it not being grounded?[/li][li]Is the problem I had with the bulbs burning out so quickly due to the fact that the old fixture was ungrounded?[/li][/ol]
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None, as long as you don’t touch it. I’m assuming a ceiling fixture, so there’s almost no chance of accidental contact.
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No. The ground is a safety only and has no bearing on the electrical performance of the fixture.
The ground is the same as neutral back at the breaker box. It provides a second path back it the box that is a better path for the current to take incase something happens to the neutral and you would be the only grounded path.
If the problem of the bulbs burning out stops, you might want to check that neutral wire to see if your getting feedback through it. There could very well be a problem somewhere else in the circuit containing that light fixture.
To elaborate on A.R. Crane’s point:
It is a bit hard explain in lay terms, but if there is a poor connection anywhere in the neutral feed between the house and the transformer, then it is possible for heavy loads on one 115V half of the 230V feed to the house to increase the voltage on the other half. If you have ever noticed a light fixture getting brighter when the refrigerator compressor starts, this is the reason. Given the OP’s reported short bulb life, this is a fairly reasonable explanation. Something like a 115V tank-less water heater (do they exist?) might even cause trouble with a “good” neutral connection.
The compact fluorescents won’t get brighter, but they are designed to a price point without a lot of safety margin. High supply voltage will find the weak link.
Thanks for the peace of mind on the ground wire. I told my wife that if the bulbs started burning out real fast again I was calling in the pros. Electricity scares me.
I put in a surge protector at the breaker box to stop protect against ne spikes coming into the house. To many appliances and other things were having problems before that. It just fits in the breaker panel, or the electrician can install one on the side of the panel. Last year the probalbe culpret for the surges was found. The connector from the lines to the step down transformer, were arcing to the pole in the rain, and they fixed it when I called it in. The surge protector at the box had things running normal though.
If any potatos or left-handed monkeys are involved, don’t forget to turn the power off.