Blowing Light Bulbs- <>20 per Month (Why?)

I would recommend proving it in or out first.

Provide a temporary supply to the house main box, generator, inverter, whatever and
see if the failures continue.
If they do, no need to argue or fall out with the supply dept.
If not, you can reasonably assume it is their problem and can cite it to get their repair.
I agree that many faults are caused by the supply.
I had a case where our kitchen sink was live 110V - I proved it out first.
When I reported it they laughed at me saying (reasonably) it was ridiculous that a water using sink was live!
I said, ok, prove it. When they came with their meters (far superior to my amateur box) low and behold 110v
- sufficient to get a nice kick. (and possibly lethal in the right circumstance)
The fault was with them on the pole transformer.
The point being, only ask a question when you know the answer.
If you prove it out first you stand a good chance of getting a repair. And, if not, you need to look inside.
Hope this helps. jt.

My wife was standing in the kitchen, preparing our usual soft-boiled eggs and toast
for breakfast, wearing only The 'T' shirt that she normally slept in.
As I walked in, almost awake, she turned to me and said softly,
"You've got to make love to me this very moment!"My eyes lit up and I thought,
"I am either still dreaming or this is going to be my lucky day!"
Not wanting to lose the moment, I embraced her and then Gave it my all;
right there on the kitchen table.
Afterwards she said, "Thanks," and returned to the stove, her T-shirt still around her neck.
Happy, but a little puzzled, I asked, "What was that all about?"
She explained, "The egg timer's broken."

The table?? You should've taken advantage of the sink!

(smile and live longer) my best regards. jt.

During a visit to my doctor, I asked him, "How do you
determine whether or not an older person should be put in a Care Home?"
"Well," he said, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer them a
teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket, asking the person to empty the bathtub."

"Oh, I understand," I said. "A normal person would use the
bucket because it is bigger than the spoon or the teacup."

"No" he said. "A normal person would pull the plug. Do you
want a bed near the window?"

The 3 types you mentioned all have filaments. Fluorescents and LEDs have ballasts (an inductor) which may prevent the surge that is surely the problem. LEDs might have an additional regulator. LEDs can be bought for as little as $2.50 at Lowes. I would certainly complain to you power company for a long term solution. In the mean time, I would try LEDs at least in lamps, and some with a surge protector in addition.

My neighbor was using LEDs and stopped because they were blowing too.

I have no reason to believe this was hot air on their part.

A very large number of the incandescent bulbs/lamps currently on the market are extremely cheap and do not have good operation life.

Did you mean 120V instead of 12V?

If you purchase LED I suggest you stay in the 4000K color spectrum otherwise you probably will not like the yellow, dim light you get.

You should be able to buy good quality LED lamps for under $10 each as Home Depot, Lowes, ACE, BEST and several other hardware stores usually have them in stock.

I have experienced poor or missing neutral connections on residential services. One was squirrel damage inside a weatherhead at the pole. After power company had been there to check their connections at transformer and left, someone bumped the guy wire on the pole, and out came a flying squirrel. In that case the neutral was reduced to just a few strands.

Another time the fault was in the meter socket at the neutral block. Customer had 16 amps on the coax to the pole (it was melting the jacket on the coax) because the neutral was gone and the service was relying on the CATV ground. Problem was not isolated until after lineman had plugged meter tester into socket, indicating problem on utility side, checked connections at pole and found no problem there.

Both situations the problem was in customer owned equipment but not (safely) accessible without a lineman. Whatever your relations with your utility are, it may be worth not treating your lineman as just another cog in the corporate machine, especially if his or her bosses do.

I was taught that diagnosing a bad neutral required separating all the grounds and neutral connections at the service. If your house has a good ground, such as metal municipal water system, you might not notice the absence of a neutral.

Rednek rule #52:

Even when you know the exact right thing to say it is sometimes best to say nothing.

Control Z

I remember a device that was advertised as extending the life of incandescent bulbs, a small disk that fit in the socket under the bulb, I think they were some sort of diode.

That is exactly what they were, a diode.

Half wave then.

Yup... from memory... they reduced the "on" time of the light as they only conducted for half of the cycle minus the rise time for the diode to start conducting. If I remember right... some people could notice the bulb flickering.

I had brought them up in a discussion here years ago. The traffic lights in the area were getting them installed. They were orange silicone rubber, with a open center hole on both sides. One side had a lip for some reason. They appeared to be a dark ceramic compound. At the time I thought they were resisters. When Used they seemed to glow a little less bright, but the most noticeable thing was slow to glow to full brightness.

After reading there posts, I now have a question.

If the problem is caused by a poor neutral connection, and that poor neutral connection is before the customer's connection to the power pole, could the issue be resolved by establishing a good ground to a municipal water pipe, of establishing a ground to the earth directly? And then to the neutral?

Not safely or legally...

Do you want to take responsibility for the possibility of electrocuting some poor plumber working on the water system? (OK, most plumbers I know are not poor)

Yes, I have seen a house with no neutral connection to pole (overhead conductor rotted off) but no symptoms whatsoever, until water pipe bonding connection was removed. Then the lights went out.

I lost a neutral at the pole and found that i had to crank up the amps on my welder to get a weld. At that time we had just got a split system A/C installed and it wouldn't run. The agent sent several repair people and they changed out parts but it wouldn't work until the neutral was replaced. Everything else in the house worked fine. I only went looking after i tried welding.

Has this been resolved?

Not that we are aware of.

The life of incandescent bulbs is very sensitive to operating voltage. See https://www.google.com/search?q=light+bulb+life+vs+voltage&rlz=1C2PRFB_enUS460US463&biw=1680&bih=949&tbm=isch&imgil=OULE01Sueu3S0M%253A%253B9k6sKFlVBgoEOM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.myra-simon.com%25252Fbike%25252Flights.html&source=iu&pf=m&fir=OULE01Sueu3S0M%253A%252C9k6sKFlVBgoEOM%252C_&usg=__zb9NYiJTAk6Ys7erCiIcuVKUmEs%3D&ved=0CD4QyjdqFQoTCJ3o3OjCsMgCFYUbPgodAeALnw&ei=myUVVt2uG4W3-AGBwK_4CQ#imgrc=OULE01Sueu3S0M%3A&usg=__zb9NYiJTAk6Ys7erCiIcuVKUmEs%3D For example, a 5% increase in voltage will decrease lamp life by almost a factor of two. Also, try hanging a bulb from a trouble light (as in mechanical isolator) to learn whether external vibration could be contributing to your problem.