First of, I am not an electrician and may not articulate my problem properly. As such, thanks a lot in advance for any responses and comments.
I have been living in a newly constructed home for two years and begin to notice that daylight bulbs in the basement are going out of service way ahead of advertised service life of 8000 hours. These are rather expensive bulbs which I bought originally with an intention to last for a very long time. The lighting structure consist of recessed lighting, i.e. spot lights.
Can anyone provide reasons why bulbs with advertised long life go out of commission after a short period of time in service? I wonder whether I should continue to spend more money on bulbs with long lives, if there is a problem in the wiring system or such......
The answer is very simple. As explained by my High School Auto Shop teacher about 1962. Battery manufacturers charge you extra for long life batteries, greater than 5 years, but actually sell an inferior battery to offset the cost of claims. So it is with all types of consumer goods, they really dont make it better, they just charge you more and call it long life.
Here is an other perspective from a GE Engineer at a seminar I once went to. When you buy a lightbulb, you are paying for light output. Over the course of the life of a lightbulb the filament vaporizes and deposits on the glass and darkens the light output. So, over time you are getting less light, which is not what you paid for. So, GE makes their bulbs to last a certain number of hours, when the light output diminishes by some amount they burn out and are replaced. Long life light bulbs merely have a larger filament that last longer, but the darkening process happens anyway. So at the end of their life they may be putting out much less light than what you expected.
I have had long life light bulbs with mixed results. Some in the garage lasted quite a while but when they burned out the glass was very dark. I have had other long life light bulbs that didnt last any longer than standard, and I probably paid too much for them. The bottom line is, unless you are curious like I am, dont waste your time or money on long life lightbulbs.
It all depends whether they're Incandescent of Fluorescent. Including CFL. Your diagnosis, as far as the filament continually eroding applies primarily to Incandescent bulbs. In fluorescents, on the other hand there is one factor that is primarily responsible for shortening the life of the bulbs/tubes. That is, repeated switching ON and OFF. Secondary, is the use of (improper) dimmers. (No matter what) :yes::no::drinkon't Drink and Drive, Ever!!!
Basement lights may be the key here. They are subject to the vibrations of the floor above, as folks walk around and such. Depending on the quality of the construction of the floor system, there may be some "bounce" to the floor joists (ceiling joists from below) that can cause premature failure of lights mounted below in the basement.
Advertising. The makers of these things know that when they put 8000 hours on the box people are going to pay a dollar or two more for them. They also know when they die after 400 hours only about 3 people out of a million are actually going to file a claim and go through that effort (and I think they have to pay shipping). So... a million extra $'s minus the $100 from people who actual file a claim = a million extra dollars.
Don't waste any money on long lasting bulbs. I used to get long lasting bulbs over my laundry area. Using them 3 hours doing laundry once a week they were dying after 2 months. I used to think it was something with the wiring but ended up getting throw-away bulbs from a different company and they've lasted over a year now. I recommend getting a different brand at least.
Traditionally, a long life incandescent lamp is one rated for about 130 volts and originally sold as a standard lamp in (notably rural) areas where overhead lines were too thin, and the first house on the line served by a transformer got around 130 volts in order that the last house get at least 105 volts during reasonably heavy load times of day.
Nowadays (late 20'th century) it has been touted for hard to reach sockets and the disadvantage is that you get fewer lumens per watt.
Not sure whether long life is totally a marketing gimmick in the 21'st century.
They also make (or used to make) "rough service" incandescent lamps that have more supporting wires to hold the filament in a more or less circular shape and can better resist stomping around on the floor above.
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