Lighting, Light Fixtures, Ceiling and Exhaust Fans - Replaced fixture that was eating bulbs, and still it eats

In my kitchen, I had a flourescent fixture that used two of the criculine bubls (1x35W and 1x40W). We have been in this house for about 3 years now and hadn't had to touch this fixture or replace a bulb until that last few months.

Both bulbs went bad within days of each other. I went to Lowes and replaced the bulbs. A week later, I replaced the bulbs again. This time, the bulbs wouldn't light up all the way. They were purple-ish at the ends where the "Circle" comes together and connects to the wiring/plug coming off the ballast. They would flicker and ther overall light output was only 1/3 of what you would expect.

Someone told me that the behaviour up to this point meant the ballast was bad in my fixture. I went to lowes and decided upon a whole new fixture.

I got a standard surface mount "Bowl" type fixture that uses two standard 60 watt bulbs. I wired that bad boy up and it worked perfectly.... For a about 4 days.

Both of the now 4 day old 60 watt bulbs died within 12 hours of each other. I noticed, while it was down to 1 bulb that there was an occasional flicker.

Given that I hadn't monkeyed with any of the wiring or anything before my original fixture began the crazy bulb eating behaviour, I hesitate to think that I did something to it myself. Note that I haven't once had any breakers pop or anything in the kitchen since living here. Other than this fixture freaking out, I have no other evidence or behaviour in this room or any other to indicate that I have faulty or improperly implemented wiring.

Obviously my original fixture was not to blame, but I am looking for a next step to resolving this issue without throwing in the towel and calling an electrical contractor. Cuz I expect that they would say, "you need to rewire this line from scratch to make sure its gone".

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

I am not an electrician, but did notice in my house the voltage was slightly high. I ended up buying 130 volt bulbs and now no issues.

Len

I have misplaced my voltmeter apparently, but have replaced one of my bulbs in the "Hungry" fixture with a 130volt bulb. After a couple days in, so far, so good. I plan to try and dig up my voltmeter to confirm, but either way, will keep you posted on the well being of said bulb.

If this turns out to be the fix after the small fortune I have been wasting on bulbs, I will feel pretty lame. :wall:

Mistakes are our learning tools. Ben Franklin said if we don't learn from our mistakes, we are destined to repeat them. So I guess as long as we learn, no harm is done. I'd check the voltage, as it does sound odd.

once a while a item will show up here is if you have the MWBC[ multi wire branch circuit ] if you have loose netural wire it will do the same thing and with some strong voltage spike or surge it will kill them.

but after you check with voltmeter to confrimed if not reading too high the high side will be about 125-128 the most [ line to netural side ]

but if you are reading more than that let us know then we can help you to track it down.

Merci, Marc