Lightbulbs blowing problem

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12 Jun 2012
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Bedfordshire
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United Kingdom
I have a wall light which holds two standard BC22 bulb holders in it. They have 60w candle bulbs, although now using the 40, or is that 45w? Halogen bulbs.

Anyway, the thing is in the past 6 weeks one holder has blown 4 bulbs, which seems a little excessive and coincidental that it is the same holder that bulbs keep blowing in. The bulbs have been purchased in packs of two from two different retail outlets, and are of different manufacturers.

Is this really my bad luck or can something in one bulb holder be affecting the longevity of the bulbs?
 
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May be that a high resistance contact in the holder is causing the lamps to overheat...
 
May be that a high resistance contact in the holder is causing the lamps to overheat...

Can you elaborate at to exactly what that means and how I would know.

If it helps, the wall lights (which are brass) have been in place for 27 years. Last year the one that is blowing bulbs became 'stiff' in so far as it was difficult to remove an replace the old bulb (that had been in there for at least 2 years) the contact pins where difficult to push down. I gave them a small burst of WD40, left them for a while then put the new bulb in and all was well again..... Until I started to use these halogen bulbs.

The first pack of halogen bulbs were cheapies, so I wasn't all that surprised when they blew - although 2 & 9 days seems a bit much. So I then purchased a brand name pack but they have lasted 3weeks and 8 days respectively.

Dunno if any of that helps .... Just thought about it
 
Well, there may be a thin film of oil over that contact now. Which would certainly make the contact resistance higher. Though I don't know the exact formula for WD40. I would never use it on an electrical contact though.

Anyway whatever the cause I think the best solution is to replace the lamp holder. I believe the spares are still available, but maybe someone who's done it recently can comment.

And a photo of the lamp holder in question would help.

EDIT: A high resistance will dissipate heat, extra heat above the normal lamp heat. Either ohms law means something to you, or it's hard to explain in a few words.
 
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Thanks for the explanation.
I'll take it apart and see what I can see.
I've used WD40 on many electrical connections in the past without any problem, it has always proved to be very useful in things like bulb holders where they become stiff and difficult to insert or remove bulbs. It was an electronics engineer at a place I used to work at who gave me that tip. Of course I avoided spraying directly onto the contact area of the spring contacts in the bulb holder

Thanks again
 

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