Jeff Weissman Electric
Member
- Location
- Park City, Utah
OK now check this out. Today I get a call from a customer saying when he changed a light bulb, it blew his breaker, and then just sparked and the light went out and stayed out. I get there and find a fried dimmer, so when I connected the wires together the light works fine. So I inspect the fixture and wiring and can't see anything that would be making the fixture short or fry the dimmer or trip the breaker. So I put it all back together, everything is fine and while I'm repairing something else, The Homeowner, then replaces the 40 watt lamp with a the 60 watt lamp he originally wanted in there. BOOM! There goes the circuit breaker. So now even I'm confused. Even though this guy is an attorney, he was perfectly capable of replacing light bulbs. So I again pull everything apart and even replace the fixture with a temporary bare bulb fixture. When I turn on the switch it is still tripping the breaker with the new fixture. I then notice the bottom of the light bulb and WOW! Look at what I found! A manufacturing defect on the bottom of the bulb that left a washer embedded into glass directly under the screw shell and contact point. This was causing a direct short whenever this bulb was energized. 27 years of being in the business and I can't remember ever seeing this. Pretty cool, Huh?
