Light bulbs keep blowing

[Peter]

I have a question regarding constant blowing of light bulbs.

My friend's father works in an old factory where the electricity is 480
volts stepped down to 120 for the lights. At times the voltage can increase
or decrease due to heavy equipment within the building turning on and off.

It's believed these spikes (and decreases) have contributed to the large
number of blown bulbs (the long factory type light bulbs).


My question is: is there a device that can be placed onto the light bulb
line that will reduce these fluctuations? Say something that would hold the
voltage at 120 during spikes and supply voltage during lower voltages to
reduce the number of bulbs blowing? Also, there are balaces (spelling?) in
these fixtures, so any componenent can't interfere with the balace.


Any discussions would be appreciated. Especially if anyone has theory input
to this problem since it involves many ways to possibly fix the problem.
I'd assume a capacitor will fix the decreased voltages and some sort of
regular to reduce spikes, but would one decide an adequete device and have
it cost effective? A store bought device would be the best solution, so if
anyone knows of one, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

 

[TimPerry]

I have a question regarding constant blowing of light bulbs.

My friend's father works in an old factory where the electricity is
480 volts stepped down to 120 for the lights. At times the voltage
can increase or decrease due to heavy equipment within the building
turning on and off.

It's believed these spikes (and decreases) have contributed to the
large number of blown bulbs (the long factory type light bulbs).

try a test. use a device like a Sola power conditioner
http://www.solaheviduty.com/products/powerconditioning/index.htm
on a bank of lights. put all new bulbs in for the test. put all new bulbs in
another zone as a control. see which zone has more problems.

My question is: is there a device that can be placed onto the light
bulb line that will reduce these fluctuations? Say something that
would hold the voltage at 120 during spikes and supply voltage during
lower voltages to reduce the number of bulbs blowing? Also, there are
balaces (spelling?) in these fixtures, so any componenent can't
interfere with the balace.

some sort of ballast is usually a part of a florescent light fixture.

Any discussions would be appreciated. Especially if anyone has theory
input to this problem since it involves many ways to possibly fix the
problem. I'd assume a capacitor will fix the decreased voltages and
some sort of regular to reduce spikes, but would one decide an
adequete device and have it cost effective? A store bought device
would be the best solution, so if anyone knows of one, please let me
know.

Thanks in advance!

it is possible that whoever is buying supplies is simply buying the rock
bottom cheapest lamp possible then scratching his head wondering why they
don't last very long. at one of my facilities the new high efficiency
fluorescents don't seem to last long. even the new electronic ballasts fail
with annoying regularity.

 

[no]

I have a question regarding constant blowing of light bulbs.

My friend's father works in an old factory where the electricity is 480
volts stepped down to 120 for the lights. At times the voltage can increase
or decrease due to heavy equipment within the building turning on and off.

It's believed these spikes (and decreases) have contributed to the large
number of blown bulbs (the long factory type light bulbs).


My question is: is there a device that can be placed onto the light bulb
line that will reduce these fluctuations? Say something that would hold the
voltage at 120 during spikes and supply voltage during lower voltages to
reduce the number of bulbs blowing? Also, there are balaces (spelling?) in
these fixtures, so any componenent can't interfere with the balace.


Any discussions would be appreciated. Especially if anyone has theory input
to this problem since it involves many ways to possibly fix the problem.
I'd assume a capacitor will fix the decreased voltages and some sort of
regular to reduce spikes, but would one decide an adequete device and have
it cost effective? A store bought device would be the best solution, so if
anyone knows of one, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

I assume that you mean fluorescent tubes and ballasts?

AFAIK, these things are pretty much unaffected by poor quality supplies
- by their very nature they stabilise the voltage across the tube
itself. Only if the voltage is dropping low enough to cause the lamp to
go out should this affect lamp life, due to increased restarting (IIUC,
one start reduces lamp life by about 15 minutes).

Buy better quality tubes, perhaps?

 

[MassiveProng]

(IIUC,
one start reduces lamp life by about 15 minutes).

I don't see a reason for this to be true, but I suppose it is
possible.

We have IR office and even hallway lights that rarely get switched on
or off by actual hands. They cycle all the time. Perhaps bulb brand
is the culprit.

 

[TimPerry]

I don't see a reason for this to be true, but I suppose it is
possible.

a new outdoor sign illuminated with 4' fluorescents. the bulbs were not
lasting 30 days. a photo controller had been installed an it turned out that
passing car and truck headlight at night were turning the sign off and
on.... not enough delay i guess. running the lights 7-24 fixed the problem.

We have IR office and even hallway lights that rarely get switched on
or off by actual hands. They cycle all the time. Perhaps bulb brand
is the culprit.

web research turns up a variety of articles.

http://www.lightingdesignlab.com/articles/switching/switching_fluorescent.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_lamp

http://tristate.apogee.net/lite/bltfluo.asp

 

[Gavin Parsons]

Work out the load and put in a suitably sized UPS this will also provide
emergency lighting when you have a power failure

Gavin

 

[[email protected]]

|
|>simplest solution. I have had excellent results using some rather primitive,
|>yet robust equipment manufactured by "Delta Surge Arrestors".
|>http://www.deltala.com/ These guys make surge and lightening arrestors and
|>a bunch of other stuff. Very cheap, very effective, and robust.
|
| I noticed from their website they make arrestors for 762 volt service
| "for 762 Volt Oilfield Applications" I never heard of such service.
| A while back there was a topic for different types of services available.
| Here's another one.
|
| It makes sense, sort of, if the 762V is phase-phase, the phase-neutral
| voltage would be 440 volts. You could use 440 volt delta connected
| motors or other devices if rewired in a wye configuration.
|
| Not sure why it's not shown as 831 volts (phase-neutral 480V).

Probably for traditional reasons like you see a lot of stuff listed as
440 volts or 460 volts instead of 480 volts.

 

[[email protected]]

| MassiveProng wrote:
|> On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 07:49:13 +0000, no <[email protected]> Gave us:
|>
|>> (IIUC,
|>> one start reduces lamp life by about 15 minutes).
|>
|> I don't see a reason for this to be true, but I suppose it is
|> possible.
|
| a new outdoor sign illuminated with 4' fluorescents. the bulbs were not
| lasting 30 days. a photo controller had been installed an it turned out that
| passing car and truck headlight at night were turning the sign off and
| on.... not enough delay i guess. running the lights 7-24 fixed the problem.

Point photo sensor straight up from a height with a cone shield.

Or just use a timer and an almanac.