Light bulbs in basement and garage burnout and can only use 60 watt incandescent.

So I fancy myself fairly knowledgeable but this one has me stumped. My house was built in 2008.

In my basement and in my garage the only light bulbs that work are incandescent 60 W bulbs. I have attempted to use 100 W incandescent bulb and LED bulbs but they do not work.

So the other issue is that the 60 W incandescent bulbs seem to burn out fairly quickly. Meaning within a week to a couple months. The ones in the garage seem to hold up okay.

I have eight light sockets in the basement and I have four light sockets in the garage. They are not on the same circuit.

I have looked at this from every aspect but cannot figure out why this would be. I find it odd that there would be some type of short in BOTH the circuit for the garage and for the basement.

Obviously, I am starting to run out of incandescent 60 W bulbs...lol... I would also like to increase the amount of brightness in both the garage in the basement.

Does anyone have any idea of what other areas I might want to explore as the cause of this? I have attached a picture of one of the bulbs in the basement.

Incandescent bulbs are easy to burn out because the filament inside the bulb is always working at a temperature of >1000 degree Celsius. The filament will become thinner and thinner, and thus burn out at some point. Why not replacing the incandescent bulbs with LED? You will need around 6 watts LED bulbs to replace 60 watt incandescent if you need the same brightness.

ecarlson53092 said:

In my basement and in my garage the only light bulbs that work are incandescent 60 W bulbs. I have attempted to use 100 W incandescent bulb and LED bulbs but they do not work.

Click to expand...

Do you mean this literally? There are fittings that would be damaged by heat if fitted with a 100W incandescent rather than a 60W,but they would work in the short term, and a LED designed as a incandescent replacement should always work, if there is nothing like a dimmer switch involved.
Incandescent lamps can have a shortened life if rigidly fitted to a ceiling under a room where a lot of activity takes place, because of vibrations and shocks transmitted through the floor.
If the alternative lamps simply will not light, then there is something very strange here.

Hmm, this is USA so short lifetime could be down to a neutral fault in a split 120-0-120V arrangement causing over-voltage.

Hopefully the OP will be back with more information or a resolution of this strange behaviour!

Hi There, I could almost 100 percent guarantee the cause of your problem is a loose connection, A filament lamp is a tremendously fragile item once energised, a loose connection would cause current spikes especially if the voltage was dropping, add to this small vibrations etc and the odds start stacking up. Is the switch Old? Might be worth starting with that then working through each accessory and snugging the connections & checking they are good. What will give you a little extra life is to go for a "Rough Service" Lamp - but long term you need to find the issue.