Possibly the most boring question on MN today - how often do your light bulbs blow?

[Stinkle]

I seem to spend half my life changing light bulbs at the moment and I'm wondering if there is actually something amiss with the electrics.

We've got those spotlight/down lights in our kitchen ceiling with LED bulbs in. Just before Christmas I put 5 new bulbs in, over this week 3 of them have blown.

The landing light has blown again, probably a couple of months old if that, DD's bedroom ceiling light has blown, the living room light has blown and I'm certain I've replaced that once since Christmas.

Is only ever the ceiling lights - we mostly use lamps so it's not a massive problem, but how often do your light bulbs blow?

Thanks!

hardly ever since we put in energy saving ones. We only replaced a couple the whole of last year. Sure there isn't a problem with your electrics rather than the bulbs?

I had this with the downlighters in the kitchen. It was happening so often we called an electrician! We were using the wrong type of bulb- they were getting too hot and overheating and blowing. Now got different LED bulbs and they all work all the time!
Are you using the correct bulb wattage in the lights?

So annoying when they keep blowing.

Thanks!

Yes, I think they're the right bulbs in the kitchen. I spoke to an electrician (who was here doing something else) about them and he recommended the particular LED ones we have now - something to do with the gap between the ceiling and the floor above being quite small so the bulbs were over heating

But they're still blowing frequently, and all the other ceiling lights are just normal lights - dangle down on a flex with a light shade. The bulbs are all energy saving ones.

We had a full electrical check a couple of years ago and nothing was flagged up then, but I think I might get someone to have another look

Are you absolutely sure you are using LED bulbs and not halogen? Not that either should have problems. If they are shorting or burning out too soon it may be an issue with the electrics rather than the bulbs. Mine have been going for 3 years now.

Get a check next time you have electrician they should last longer than that.

On a side note I bought two bulbs for our hallway last week, longlife bright types because the old ones took forever to brighten.

Asda own brand, no big brand stuff 18w.....
£15.
EACH!
£30 for two bulbs.
I didn't check the shelf price I was concentratingon the hyraglyphic LED ES SES Bayonet wattage equivalent shite.
I was shellshocked at the checkout insisted it must be pricing error.
They say 25 years life in em but for £15 each they'd better see me out.

I got my LED GU10 bulbs from home bargains for about £2.50 each whereas they are about 3 times that price in the supermarket! I needed 9 as well so would have cost a fortune. They work really well too and give instant light

Thanks,

They're definitely LED bulbs in the kitchen, quite low wattage as recommended by the electrician. From B&Q, they were 3 for 2 on packs of 3 (about £20 I think)

I don't remember constantly changing light bulbs like this when you could buy the old fashioned ones and they weren't anywhere near as expensive.

I'll get them checked again

how many lights do you have, poking through the ceiling?

One important reason why people didn't change lamps very often when they had one pendant bulb, or one fluorescent tube, is that there were not many.

If a lamp typically lasts three years in a kitchen, and you have one CFL globe, you will change a bulb once in three years, on average. However if you have twelve downlighters (downlighters are very inefficient at lighting a room) you can expect to change, on average, twelve bulbs in three years = one every few months. People used to complain about chandelier bulbs for the same reason.

Downlighters and spots tend to run hot, which shortens their life, and are rather small. I happen to like big globes, but you might not. If you suspect the lamps you buy have unreasonably short lives, write the fitting date on the stem with marker pen, and keep the receipts.

BTW the next generation of LED lamps is more efficient, and the price will be dropping, so don't look on today's purchase as a ten-year investment.

Thanks!

We have 6 down lighters in the kitchen, but the 3 that have blown this week were out of the 5 that I changed just before Christmas. They blow quite often and I don't always put new ones in as they're a PITA, but we got down to just 1 bulb so I thought it was about time I changed them. The 1 that was left I think I put in around Halloween time

The rest of the ceiling lights are just 1 in each room, no wall lights or anything like that.

We only really use the main ceiling lights in the bathrooms, hall and landing so I'd expect them to need replacing more that the rest, but, the living room light, that only gets used once in a blue moon if I have to come down in the middle of the night and don't want to fumble around with lamps, blows as frequently

try it with a CFL energy saving lamp. Cheaper than LED but should last for a nominal 5 or 10 thousand hours.

The ones with an opal globe look much better than sticks or spirals. Get a warm white.

If it is actually visible through an open shade, splash out on a 150mm globe, which I think looks rather nice, and does not cause glare or sharp shadows because the light source is not a tiny point.

for example

You may find GE or Philips ones in high street shops.

To my eye, a 24W Warm White is as bright as an old 100W incandescent lamp, a 20W not quite.

"Traditional" shaped CFLs are less expensive and more widely sold.

LEDs will in a few years have outstripped CFLs in value for money and reliability, but, I think, not yet.

p.s.

can't help with the downlighters.

Look for Osram brand, which have a high reputation for quality.

Thank you!

The traditional ones linked are the ones we have now I think. We have the stick ones in the bathrooms as we've got round ball light shades and the hole in the top is too small for the round bulbs.

The LEDs are only in the kitchen, although they're only cheap ones that were on offer in B&Q

I'll go and have a hunt round B&Q (it's all we've got)

Light bulbs baffle me these days

Thanks again

Marking place cause we have this problem. I suspect that it is the Ikea fitting in the kitchen - not the electrics, cause we've just had rewired.

All the bloody time! Have these stupid halogen things. Not recommended