If my house were expiring some small led lights the kitchen table light fixture as well as a ceiling fan, where would you guys start checking?

My first guess is to ensure the wiring harnesses in the fixtures are tight, and I've been going through the house systematically to do that. But, should that not work, can I get a non-contact and measure the voltage of the main? Should I?

I've checked the Hz before on another unrelated task and found 60hz to be doing the job.

Just want to see if this is something on my end or if it's the power company's responsibility to the main.


Thanks as always.

 

Maybe a close electric storm strike.

 

No. I I swapped a bulb out and within about eight weeks and burned out again, and these were just the small little chandelier LED lights

 

You could check your line voltage at different times thru out the day and night.

 

Am I looking for high or low? And should I task it the same (loads)?

 

https://powertronics.com/products/pqr-d50-power-line-monitor

 

You might look into the brand and/or source of your LED bulbs. They may be poor quality counterfeits.

 

If there are no kids around.....leave a voltmeter connected to a socket......and just glance at it thru the day....like a clock. You are just looking for stability. If that looks good....set meter for peak reading for a day or two. Many inexpensive VOMs have this feature now. You wouldn't see a voltage transient with regular meter.
You can buy such a VOM meter on e-bay for 30-50 bucks.

 

We've installed LEDs in all the fixtures (about 30) around my condo building and they've been ON 24-7 for the past 2 years without any problem. What brand are your that are burning out so fast?

 

Not sure of the brand. I honestly discarded the package, but they were straight off the shelf at lowes. I switched to LEDs after I had a few problems with incandescent bulbs in that fixture...a few other ceiling fans too. I figured I bought bad bulbs and would just move on to LED. That's led me to the voltage issue. I'll look into the meter idea. Again though, is it a high spike or a fluxation that might be an issue?

 

How about this? More in my price range for recording and reading trends.


https://www.amazon.com/Powertronics...rd_wg=FAEC5&psc=1&refRID=0FNJC3SNN05TSVYABJ4C

 

I switched to LEDs after I had a few problems with incandescent bulbs in that fixture...a few other ceiling fans too.

Looks like you have electrical problems. I suspect a loose connection.

 

Well I changed the wiring on the bathroom vanity for a similar issue. I found just elec tape holding it all together. Wire nuts all around but I put LEDs in so I didn't do a proper compare.

Assuming I go with that tester is there a tolerance in voltage that's permissible? + /- something?

 

Not sure of the brand. I honestly discarded the package, but they were straight off the shelf at lowes. I switched to LEDs after I had a few problems with incandescent bulbs in that fixture...a few other ceiling fans too. I figured I bought bad bulbs and would just move on to LED. That's led me to the voltage issue. I'll look into the meter idea. Again though, is it a high spike or a fluxation that might be an issue?

Why were you having problems with incandescent bulbs? Was there not enough cooling, making the bulbs burn out prematurely? I've had a couple ceiling fixtures like that. Although very counterintuitive, CFL and LED bulbs can need more cooling than incandescents because more energy is converted to heat directly. In an incandescent, a lot of the heat is radiated away as IR and so gets absorbed away from the fixture.

 

Cooling was fine. Wife and shallow glass fixtures for the 5 bulbs over the kitchen table. Bulb was exposed at the equatorial point.

I'm thinking bad wiring. But that meter I linked to might be a good second step.

 

It's evident to me that you have wiring problems. I also, still, suspect heating issues, the "equatorial point" comment especially catching my eye.

It is most likely that the "wiring problem" is within your house, although it could be anywhere between your loads and the power line. Most electrical power utilities will gladly check your supply at your power meter, and it's smart to have them do that once every few years. (With the latest generation of meters however, that may be an integral feature.) My experience with utilities has typically been good; no resistance from them to verify their "supply".

Your "panel" may be damaged if there have been wiring issues inside it. Improperly terminated conductors often cause such damage over time.

Look very carefully and critically at the fixtures, sockets and locations of the LED lamps which consistently fail! Consider precisely where the source of heat is, and how that heat will dissipate! Where a socket with a poor enough connection to produce resistive heat is adjacent to other devices, such as SCRs, rectifiers, etc, which also produce heat, adequate means of dissapation must be present to keep an adequate flow away from heat sensitive components within that LED lamp. Crunchy, browned, or noticably hardened insulation within those fixtures, including adjacent to the sockets, is proof of slow, limited heat dissipation.

Lowe's sells lots of junk, but the biggest problem with them is that it is so, so difficult to find and speak with someone there who has any knowledge of what's going on: somebody knows which one's are the better or worse ones, because they know what gets returned. "Better ones" handle the production and dissipation of heat better!

 

I'd go with heat issues as my first suspicion with poor quality of manufacture playing a significant role as well.

About a year ago I converted my yard light over to us a cluster of seven 60 watt equivalent LED bulbs (Zilotek) which I have to say for a maybe 35 watt input it's impressive! Way better than the larger ~70 actual watt Mogul base CFL that was in there. Downside is I used cheap bulbs and two have given up so far. Even with only 5 running it's still a great light but poor quality can play a significant role in working bulb life.

Same with the heat issue. Everything I have in the house is LED now and initially I had two other bulbs go out in less than 6 months and few hundred hours use that were in locations where they have poorer than typical heat dissipation.
They were the cheap Zilotek bulbs that have no heatsinks on them (they run hot to the touch in the open) so they got replaced with a pair of Sylvania bulbs that have big aluminum heatsinks (much cooler in the open) and they have given me zero trouble in two years.

 

Wiring issues consist of ensuring the integrity of each connection, starting with the wires in the main distribution box. Now, if you are not comfortable working around these voltages or unsafe in any manner, disregard my comments.

Finding the problem:

At the service panel:

Every connection should be tight. An insulated screwdriver of sufficient size can check the wiring in the main box. Since the wiring is not labeled, you will have to check all the connections on the return and the ground. Check the termination on the circuit breaker(s) as well. When tightening these connections, if you move the screwdriver more than a quarter turn, that connection is suspect.

at the connection to the loads

Every connection should be tight. Again tightening a connection more than a quarter of a turn makes the connection suspect.

Flickering could be a loss of voltage for a few cycles or brown outs that are low enough to cause the lamp to dim greatly. I doubt you would see that on any DMM, There are equipment specifically designed to do those measurements. You could build simple test equipment that could detect a half-cycle loss of the 60 Hz signal. You could build simple test equipment that can measure over or under voltage. What it would do is energize an LED and you would have to reset the circuit. The problem is that the LED indicates you had ONE of whatever the circuit detects ... over voltage, under voltage, or missing a half cycle.

Anyway, should you attempt to effect repairs, good luck in that endeavor.

 

Another thing to be on the look out for -- aluminum wiring. Depending on the area and age of the home, your house may have been wired with aluminum wiring. If they used non-aluminum rated components (breakers, switches, outlets, sockets, etc.), which was very common since they were more expensive and the main motivation for using aluminum was to lower the cost, then these connections have a tendency to loosen over time.

 

MOD NOTE: Moved to General Electronics Chat