blowing out bulbs

[mpj111]

I have couple of question.
One or two bulbs blowing out in my house. Iam keeps replacing it again and again, but same bulb keeps blowing out.

My second question is I have a 1000W heater. I want to reduce the current flow to keep the bill low. Lets say I want to make it work similar to 500W heater. Can I use lamp dimmer to reduce current consumption. Or is there any other easy ways.

 

[ericgibbs]

I have couple of question.
One or two bulbs blowing out in my house. Iam keeps replacing it again and again, but same bulb keeps blowing out.

My second question is I have a 1000W heater. I want to reduce the current flow to keep the bill low. Lets say I want to make it work similar to 500W heater. Can I use lamp dimmer to reduce current consumption. Or is there any other easy ways.

hi,
Dimmers are only about 250W [VA]
Fit a 10Amp mains rated diode in series with the 1000w heater, it will give about 500W

 

[stevez]

Regarding the bulbs:

A. Sometimes the electricity supplier will make adjustments that result in a higher than normal voltage - one outcome is a reduction in incandescant bulb life. Measure the voltage.

B. A fixture that allows the bulb to run extremely hot can shorten bulb life.

Regarding the heater:

A. If you reduce the power to 1/2 but the control (thermostat) keeps the heater on twice as long then you aren't likely to save much. Yes, demand will be impacted - not sure if that affects your bill.

B. Some heaters are dual voltage (example 110/220) and in some situations you can reconfigure the wiring to provide lower power. Same problem as A.

C. Can you adjust the control so that it is on less? This might result in a cooler environment. Sometimes people move the control or sensor to a warmer location - net result is that where the control/sensor was will be cooler.

 

[rjvh]

I have couple of question.
One or two bulbs blowing out in my house. Iam keeps replacing it again and again, but same bulb keeps blowing out.

My second question is I have a 1000W heater. I want to reduce the current flow to keep the bill low. Lets say I want to make it work similar to 500W heater. Can I use lamp dimmer to reduce current consumption. Or is there any other easy ways.

Hi mpj 111

if your bulps blow out does that hapen when something (device) is swiched in or out?

are the 2 bulps conected on the same power line (group) form the fuse box?

did you monitor the voltage already for a longer periode of time and are there fluctuation and if how big are they??

about the water heater with reducing the curent you will reduce the capacity of heating and more of temp recorvery of the heater also
I asume that your heater is controled by a thermostath that maens that the heater will just be longer swiched on to go to the same temparature

to make a heating system more efficient means to tackel the losses in the system

that can be done by insulation of the tank and pipe work

also swiching off the circulation through the system (asumming you have a loop system) works but the minor is that you don't have instand water from the tap and have to wait a bit also you need some kind of a control to make it automatic

with swiching the element you won't save any energy you only downgrade your system in the uasability

Robert-Jan

 

[audioguru]

Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. They use 1/4 the current of incandescent bulbs, operate much cooler and last up to 10 years. They are inexpensive now.

 

[crutschow]

Fit a 10Amp mains rated diode in series with the 1000w heater, it will give about 500W

That puts a large amount of DC on the AC line which the power company doesn't like since it tends to saturate the transformer core supplying your house, causing it to overheat .

 

[ericgibbs]

That puts a large amount of DC on the AC line which the power company doesn't like since it tends to saturate the transformer core supplying your house, causing it to overheat .

hi,
I dont think for one second it will cause any trouble in a sub station transformer.
Lots of domestic devices still use half wave rectification.

 

[crutschow]

hi,
I dont think for one second it will cause any trouble in a sub station transformer.
Lots of domestic devices still use half wave rectification.

In the U.S. a 1000W heater would take over 8A, which is a lot of DC. Most domestic devices with half-wave rectifier likely take much less than that.

But it could be that even 8A DC won't bother the transformer, although I'm thinking of the transformer on the pole outside your house, not the sub station (which to me is the transformer supplying the several thousand volts to the power lines running around a city.)

 

[ericgibbs]

In the U.S. a 1000W heater would take over 8A, which is a lot of DC. Most domestic devices with half-wave rectifier likely take much less than that.

But it could be that even 8A DC won't bother the transformer, although I'm thinking of the transformer on the pole outside your house, not the sub station (which to me is the transformer supplying the several thousand volts to the power lines running around a city.)

hi Carl,
If you recall years ago most TV sets had half wave rectification, now that did cause some pole/sub station transformer problems.

If I was the OP, I would fit a decent triac controller so he has a finer control over the heater.

I think he is talking about a 1KW room heater.???

 

[Hero999]

A hair dryer uses about 1200W and most models use a recfier for the low speed setting.

I've head that in the US a single transformer only power a few homes but here in the UK we have substations that power 50 or more houses.

 

[mpj111]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I am talking about room heater of 1000W.
Can I use SCR fire (triac) dimmer circuit to control the Heater.
I want to make it similar to 500W one.

thanks

 

[mpj111]

Regarding to bulbs, it is on the same set and operating one switch.
Always burning one bulb. Can it be a bad holder, or bad contacts.

 

[Hero999]

You can buy 1000W dimmer switches.
https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=1000W+dimmer&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

[crutschow]

I am talking about room heater of 1000W.
Can I use SCR fire (triac) dimmer circuit to control the Heater.
I want to make it similar to 500W one.

You should make it similar to a 1000W dimmer because it's the current rating of the triac that's generally the limit. Thus even at the 500W setting it's currents are being determined by a 1000W load. Remember power is I^2*R. A 1000W load has half the resistance of a 500W load, so for a given power the current is 1.4 times as much in the 1000W load as the 500W load.

 

[crutschow]

A hair dryer uses about 1200W and most models use a recfier for the low speed setting.

I think some models use two heating elements that they either connect in series or parallel.

Of course a hair dryer is a low duty-cycle appliance which is not going to appreciable heat up a big transformer, even if it momentarily increases it's dissipation. A room heater could be on for a much longer time period.

 

[KMoffett]

I have couple of question.
One or two bulbs blowing out in my house. Iam keeps replacing it again and again, but same bulb keeps blowing out.

Not sure where you are, but if your house wiring is center-tapped 220V (110v-Neu-110v), it sounds like you have a loose Neutral connection. If the neutral feed wire disconnects, the loads on the two 110v branchs act as a voltage divider across the 220v feed. The "110v" circuit with the heavier loads (lower resistance) will have a voltage of less than 110v. The other "110v" circuit, with the lighter loads (higher resistance), will have voltage drop higher than 110V. This higher voltage can blow out light bulbs.

I know this, because it happened to my family's farm house. They periodically blew certain light bulbs. Sometimes very quickly, and sometimes after a long time. One day, during a storm, dad was looking out a window and saw a connection arcing on the power pole that fed the house, as the wind whipped the wires back and forth. After the electrician reconnected the neutal wire on the pole, they never had the blown-bulb problem again. "When" the bulbs blew all depended on what was running on each circuit at the times the neutral momentarily dieconnected.

Ken

 

[Willbe]

a loose Neutral connection.

And with this neutral problem the bulb brightness should change as the load on the other side of the neutral increases or decreases; the brightness should go up as heavier loads are added.

Bulbs are also sensitive to vibration, as caused by doors slamming or people walking on the floor above.