Bulbs Keep Blowing

[TortoiseMan]

Hey People,

Just got 2 quick questions.

1) My heat lamp for my Beardie keeps blowing and im not sure what is causing it? Have people got any ideas? Its linked to a habistat going up to 300W and it is a 75W infrared and goes into a 6-gang, with my bedside lamp and clock.

2) How do I stop my bulb blowing in relation to the question above?

Thanks alot!
Josh

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't know the answer, but could it be that your habistat is asking for more out of the light than 75 can give?

Have you tried plugging it into a socket all by itself?

 

[TortoiseMan]

I don't know the answer, but could it be that your habistat is asking for more out of the light than 75 can give?

I'm not really sure about that, as a friend has the same setup and their bulbs don't blow at the rate that mine are going - weve lost 5 in the past 2 months

 

[Tom]

You might have a short in the actual fixture that the bulb screws into. Also, even though you thermostat says it can handle 300 watts, It might no really be able to handle the current all day everyday.

Hopefully one of our many electrician members can explain it in more detail.

 

[yagyujubei]

I have bought a couple of 150w heat glo. One lasted about 2 mo, and the other 2 weeks. I'm buying ceramic instead.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

You have a short somewhere. I would get a whole new habistat because that's where *I* think your short is...

 

[exoticsdr]

next time you put a new bulb in, do not touch it with your bare hands....pull lit from it's box with a piece of cloth or microfiber and install it. A short in a circuit is generally going to cause a failure of the entire electrical circuit and a blown breaker or fuse (one of the benefits of being an electrician and electronics technician before becoming a vet). Your habistat could be faulty and causing an overvoltage to your lamp or you lamp could be overheating because of oils from your fingers on the bulb. If the cloth trick doesn't work change out your habistat. Cheers!

 

[Balboa]

I'm an electrician, but frankly, I'm not licensed to practice in the UK. You guys have funky electricity

By "blowing" I'm assuming you mean the lamp keeps burning out, and not actually exploding.

My gut response without being able to take a look at your setup is that your lamps are being worn out prematurely by too much off and on. Most thermostats operate like a heat controlled switch, full on, full off. When hooked up to a lamp this will cause the lamp to be frequently switched on and off which is very hard on the filaments. (have you ever noticed that light bulbs that are frequently switched don't last anywhere as long as ones that are just left on?)

As to your friend having better results, perhaps the nature of their setup requires less active cooling, or some other factor so the lamp gets switched less. Its also possible the two units have different hysteresis settings. (A wider gap between switching temps).

In all honesty I would never suggest using a lamp on a standard thermostat for just this reason. If you can source a truely "proportional" thermostat results would be better. These work like a dimmer, only giving the lamp enough power to maintain the set temperature. These are also normally far more costly.

A better solution would be to either use a CHE, Pad, Cable or some other purely thermal heating element with a normal thermostat, or use a dimmer with a light bulb and "dial it in" to hold the desired temperature.

Hope this helps.

 

[TortoiseMan]

I'm an electrician, but frankly, I'm not licensed to practice in the UK. You guys have funky electricity

By "blowing" I'm assuming you mean the lamp keeps burning out, and not actually exploding.

My gut response without being able to take a look at your setup is that your lamps are being worn out prematurely by too much off and on. Most thermostats operate like a heat controlled switch, full on, full off. When hooked up to a lamp this will cause the lamp to be frequently switched on and off which is very hard on the filaments. (have you ever noticed that light bulbs that are frequently switched don't last anywhere as long as ones that are just left on?)

As to your friend having better results, perhaps the nature of their setup requires less active cooling, or some other factor so the lamp gets switched less. Its also possible the two units have different hysteresis settings. (A wider gap between switching temps).

In all honesty I would never suggest using a lamp on a standard thermostat for just this reason. If you can source a truely "proportional" thermostat results would be better. These work like a dimmer, only giving the lamp enough power to maintain the set temperature. These are also normally far more costly.

A better solution would be to either use a CHE, Pad, Cable or some other purely thermal heating element with a normal thermostat, or use a dimmer with a light bulb and "dial it in" to hold the desired temperature.

Hope this helps.

Ok cheers for the information - my habistat is one of the proportional thermostat ones so it dims before turning off.

And to the others - thanks for the information ill try what you have said - lets hope it works!

Cheers people,
Josh