BronYrAur,
It's not about renting or owning, it's about the rules of this forum (not mine). By "homeowner" I meant not related to a professional engineering issue, the charter of this forum. I didn't RF this thread, but I think the admins eventually might. That's all I was saying.
Back to you original issue, another approach is to find some little discs called "Bulb Savers" at the hardware store.
Cooper Electric Bulb Saver link They are sold to save energy but they also make your bulbs last 100 times longer (no joke). They are a diode that goes into the lamp socket before screwing in the bulb. They make the bulb work on 1/2 wave AC, but other than a reduced lumen output you would never know. Human eyes can't pick up strobing higher than about 16Hz, so at 30Hz (effectively) you don't notice any flicker. The trick around the reduced lumen output is to increase the wattage of the lamp. That defeats the energy savings of course, but 100 times the lamp life is worth the effort, especially if the lamp is in a hard to reach area. These things have fallen out of favor since the advent of CFLs but I still see them around in places.
Kieth,
The funny thing is, I can't tell you! It's been so long now I'll have to go remove one and read the name off of it. I do know that "Lights of America" is some of the cheapest cr@p out there IMHO. Some of those didn't even last 3 months.
I have some here in my office from Techna Bright bought at Costco, but they are only about 2 years old so the jury is still out on them. I installed some other brand based on Consumer Report's recommendation on my front porch fixture when I moved here in Oct. 1997 and I know I bought them all at the same time. Some already died, but they were burning base up which isn't too good for CFLs because the electronic ballast heats up. The porch light is base down, 9 years and counting, with timer operation so it burns every day for 10 hours (roughly). The only drawback is the warm up time. I'll get the name and post it tomorrow.
Eng-Tips: Help for your job, not for your homework Read faq731-376
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