Dale, you might not want to totally discount the "voltage may be too high"
comment. While this *probably* isn't a problem, I can be a real issue.
When we moved into a house (was renting), we had all sorts of problems with
bulbs going out, electronics burning out, etc. Attending the same college
at that time, some of my friends were into electical engineering, and we did
check our electical service and outlets. Various outlets around the house
varied an amazing amount from "standard" 110V. A couple outlets that had
burned out several things measured 130 - 135V! Complaints to the power
company were ignored or the officials we spoke to said that they could
measure the power at the meter, and they were *sure* it would be in an
acceptable range (which BTW was a pretty disgustingly wide range), and that
beyond the meter was a issue to be addressed by the homeowner.

When we moved into a house we eventually bought, we checked the outlets and
found that they were in close to 110V BUT, nearly no outlets were grounded.
After we bought the house the first improvment was to replace an old small
fusebox with a modern circuit breaker panel. We also ran enough new wiring
so that everything is properly grounded.

If you have the equipment, and know how to safely measure voltage at outlets
or at a fixture, that is the way to rule out bad circuits. I am sure an
electrician could also check this if you don't have the meters, know-how, or
safety awareness to undertake this yourself. Better safe than sorry with
something that can kill you.

Sam Crowell
Klamath Falls, OR


Regular home light bulbs also burn out increasingly faster. I asked a
couple friends in this neighborhood AND ANOTHER quite a ways away to pay
attentioin to it.. ( I did this because the True Value guy says my voltage
is probably too high! uh-huh!) Yep, after they started to pay attention
they agreed.


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