Light buld don't last

[Toomy]

The bulb in one of my lamps controlled by a
lamp module sure does not seem to last as
long as any other bulb in lamps withing in
the same room not controlled by X10.  Is it
my imagination or is it that the lamp is
set to go on every night and I'm losing
track of the number of hours it's on?

[Charles Sullivan]

I've seen complaints by others about the same
problem, however I dim my bulbs (~20 total)
down by 12% and 22% and they last for _years_
of daily dusk-to-dawn operation. (12% from
dusk until 11:30 PM, 22% thereafter until
dawn.)

I'm wondering if the filament design of some
brands of bulbs is such that the triac-
triggered AC waveform is causing them to
vibrate, which will kill a bulb in short
order.

My bulbs are mostly GE brand, a mix of 40-
100W standard bulbs and 25-40W flare tip
candelabra base bulbs.

[Toomy]

I'll see if the filaments are vibrating and
use your idea of  dimming the lights and
hopefully I'll get better bulb life.

[Charles Sullivan]

To run a valid comparison you'd probably have
to run one lamp on the X10 lamp module and
another on a mechanical timer - and repeat
the test several times to eliminate bulb-to-
bulb variation.  At that, the lamp on the X10
module should have an advantage because of
the minimum 4-5% voltage drop across the
module in the fully-brightened state.

I've had it with off-brand bulbs.  They cost
only 1/2 - 2/3 as much as the GE/Sylvania/
Philips but only last 1/10 as long, if that
(regardless of whether manually switched or
controlled via X10).