Why Does Bulbs Burn Out Quickly?

I have a lighted house number sign that runs off a v. DC transformer. There are two volt bulbs attached to the sign. I recently had my house resided and since I reinstalled the sign, bulbs don’t last more than one month. They are miniature DC bulbs that are rated at hours of life. The sign is old and I had to rewire it a little bit since the original wiring was damaged. Maybe I did it wrong. The lights shine brightly, more than they used to. I’m wondering if my rewiring changed the circuit and if I have to add some kind of resistor into the circuit to reduce the amps. Any ideas?

✅ Answers

? Favorite Answer

  • They’re burning out more quickly because as you said they are shining brighter than they have ever done. That means you’ve mis-wired something.

    As you’ve already been told to do, check to see you have volts at the bulb terminal. If it’s any higher than volts then something is definitely wired wrong.

    Send me a diagram of what you have for wiring and I’ll try to sort it out for you. I have a little experience with power systems on the space shuttle, so I think a lighted sign is no problem.

    Hope this helps.

    ‘av’a g’day mate.

    “)

  • Sounds like you rewired something wrong. I just removed both of my porch lights so I could sand & paint them. As I was removing, I took tape & marked each wire, both at the house & on the fixture for just this reason. Just because the sign is old, that doesn’t mean anything. My porch lights are original to my house…which is ! They all work fine.

    You’ll have to remove the fixture. Look at the wiring. It’s hard to give you ideas since We don’t know if the lights share a common ground…are they connected in series? Are there separate wires for the sets?

    Whatever you do, DO NOT add a resistor in line. Fix it correctly, or call someone who can.

  • don’t know where you are but if wires are the same, time to get out the volt meter, check voltage. If multitap transformer, may have picked up wrong wires, on primary or secondary.

  • Leave a Comment