While LED light bulbs are more expensive than other types of light bulbs, such as halogen and CFL, many homeowners are switching their light fixtures over to LED—they draw much less power than other light bulbs, which can save you a lot of money over the entire lifespan of the bulb. Unfortunately, some homeowners are finding out that their LED bulbs are burning out much too quickly. LED bulbs are designed to last for years, so a bulb that burns out after only a few months suggests that a problem with your light fixture or wiring caused it to fail prematurely. To help you find out what's causing your light bulbs to burn out frequently, here are some common causes of LED light bulb failure.
Using LED Light Bulbs on an Older Dimmer Switch
The older triac-style dimmer switches common in homes are not compatible with LED light bulbs. These dimmers work by reducing the amount of power provided to the fixture by rapidly switching on and off. This is all accomplished inside of a single AC cycle, so it doesn't cause your lights to flicker on and off—it simply provides an overall lower amount of power to the light bulb, causing it to shine less brightly.
LED light bulbs draw so little power compared to other types of light bulbs that triac-style dimmer switches have difficulty determining when to switch on and when to switch off. The power supplied to the light bulb becomes very uneven, which rapidly causes damage to the electronics inside. If you want to use an LED light bulb with dimmer switches, you need both an LED light bulb that supports dimmer switches and dimmer switches that support LED light bulbs. Any other combination will cause your light bulbs to burn out very quickly. You can purchase LED light bulbs that are dimmer-capable from a hardware store, and a home electrical repair service can quickly and inexpensively upgrade all of the dimmer switches in your home to LED-capable dimmer switches.
Overheating Bulb Base
While LED light bulbs produce much less heat compared to incandescent, halogen, or CFL bulbs, they're much more vulnerable to the heat that they do produce. If you're placing your LED light bulbs into an enclosed fixture, you need to use an LED light bulb designed for that purpose. These enclosure-friendly LED light bulbs have a metal heat sink near the base that dissipates the generated heat, preventing it from damaging the sensitive electronics inside. If your bulbs are still overheating, you may be forced to simply leave them exposed. For example, you can remove the globe from a ceiling fan in order to provide the light bulb with more ventilation.
LED light bulbs are quite expensive, so it's important to find and fix the problem that's causing them to frequently burn out. After all, you won't recognize the energy savings that come from switching your home to LED light bulbs when you're forced to frequently replace them. If you can't determine the cause behind your LED light bulbs burning out, call a business like Gosling Electrical Service and have your light fixtures inspected—you'll save yourself the hassle and expense of having to constantly replace your LED light bulbs.
When we purchased our first home, we realized that there was a problem with some of the electrical work. Some of the lights flickered when we turned them on, and others really seemed to have issues if they were left on long term. I thought the issues was the light bulbs themselves at first, so I replaced several of them. However, after making those changes, it seemed like things were still having trouble. I began going through and thinking carefully about how to identify and resolve the challenges, and it occurred to me that working with an electrician could be helpful. I turned to the professional for help, and it was a good thing I did. Read more about electricians on this blog.