sfav8r
Senior Member
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area
I just did a service call for a client who says that the lamps she is putting in her recessed lights are exdploding.
The first time she assumed it was a freak accident, but she replaced the lamp and two days later it did the same thing. There were literally pieces of glass in the hallway.
I cannot think of a miswiring that could cause this. I originally thought it could be a "california 3-way" wher somehow one of the feed got moved to another phase, resulting in 220v at the bulb, even 220 shouldn't blow the bulb apart.
I checked the wiring, fixture, installation, and the general envirponment and everything is much better than average.
I can think of only three things that could cause this:
1) Faulty lamps..I suppose there could have been a series of bad lamps if they were the same lot #.
2) Water (or some other liquid) contacted the lamp while it was hot.
3) Excessive heat.
The location of the fixture pretty much eliminates the possability of water, it is in a hallway well away from any source of water and there is no plumbing in the vacinity that could have leaked. The fixture is a lightolier. It is mounted in a dropped ceiling with 12" of clearance. On top of the fixture is a concrete slab separating if from the floor above.
The only thing that is somewhat different is that they are using A lamps, which we generally don't put in recessed cans, but they are 60w and the fixtures specifies a 60 A lamps as suitable. Also, the exact fixure is throughout the house and is using the same lamos with no issues.
Finally, just to convince myself, I left a data logger hooked up for a few days and the power quality is good. There is also another fixture on the same circuit about 4 feet away and it has not experienced any problems.
Any thoughts?
The first time she assumed it was a freak accident, but she replaced the lamp and two days later it did the same thing. There were literally pieces of glass in the hallway.
I cannot think of a miswiring that could cause this. I originally thought it could be a "california 3-way" wher somehow one of the feed got moved to another phase, resulting in 220v at the bulb, even 220 shouldn't blow the bulb apart.
I checked the wiring, fixture, installation, and the general envirponment and everything is much better than average.
I can think of only three things that could cause this:
1) Faulty lamps..I suppose there could have been a series of bad lamps if they were the same lot #.
2) Water (or some other liquid) contacted the lamp while it was hot.
3) Excessive heat.
The location of the fixture pretty much eliminates the possability of water, it is in a hallway well away from any source of water and there is no plumbing in the vacinity that could have leaked. The fixture is a lightolier. It is mounted in a dropped ceiling with 12" of clearance. On top of the fixture is a concrete slab separating if from the floor above.
The only thing that is somewhat different is that they are using A lamps, which we generally don't put in recessed cans, but they are 60w and the fixtures specifies a 60 A lamps as suitable. Also, the exact fixure is throughout the house and is using the same lamos with no issues.
Finally, just to convince myself, I left a data logger hooked up for a few days and the power quality is good. There is also another fixture on the same circuit about 4 feet away and it has not experienced any problems.
Any thoughts?
