light controlling...but a little weirder than usual.

[pacman88]

ok, so i named this light controlling because i have random electric questions to do with controlling lights....


ive googled it up a bit, and found not too many useful things, but most have to do with people using a serial connection to control external lights around the house, usually being christmas lights....

this is almost where i want to go, however, the room that i am in with my computer has its own light fixtures, both on the ceiling, normally installed just as any normal light fixture is installed in a room of a house.

now first of all, my reason for doing this is an odd one. i know doing this wont necessarily fix the problem im having, but i will get to screw around with random parts of electrical wiring of my house, so its a fun learning project anyways.

the reason is this : the house, built in 1981, was equipped with a normal light fixture, one single bulb in the ceiling. as my family moved in, i needed more light in my room, and myself and my father, who knows NOTHING technical whatsoever, decided to install a fixture with 3 sockets, to hold 3 light bulbs, directing them at different places in the room.
as time went on this seemed to be ok, nothing seemed bad about it, and nothing seemed to be working incorrectly.
as i built this computer a few months ago, i plugged in two surge protectors into the wall plate, and proceeded on using my computer like normal.
every so often, when the ceiling lights are on (controlled by a normal room light switch btw) the 3rd and sometimes even the 2nd socket seem to surge or something somehow? the lightbulbs burst and glass shrapnel flies to the floor, usually leaving the bulb socket connection and filament and everything still in the socket. obviously this isnt good, but when it happened the first time i figured there was nothing wrong with it, and it was just a fluke. after going through 6 lightbulbs now in 1 week, i think theres something a little strange.....
the obvious answer would be just to not use those two sockets for the time being and have an electrician come and take a look at what the hell is going on...however these sorta things interest me, and not to mention having to get up from a game or whatever to flip off the lights when glare is getting out of control starts to annoy me. so ive decided on this project....

id like to possibly, route electrical wire or whatever to the currently installed light fixture, so that it may be controlled both by the switch on the wall already installed, and another switch either mounted near the computer or even directly in the computer itself. if possible, using the computer to control the lights, such as turning the lights on at 6am, and make sure they are off at 8am would be incredible, but not sure if that would work, or if it would be too complicated or expensive.

now i know about the X10 technologies, and im not interested in those per se.

mainly because i dont want to shell out hundreds of hundreds of dollars to rewire lots of things in my house, besides, im a kid who just likes to tear shi* apart and learn from it anyhow, as to use it sometime in the future, so this would be a fun project anyways....

any input would be appreciated, however i know this isnt the type of site i should be introducing this topic, i just figure people may be interested, or electrical engineers maybe in here or something, idk.

thanks anyways.

[ProHandyman]

Bursting bulbs are never a good thing.

It usually only happens when there is an extreme temperature swing (think water drop, snow flakes) hitting the glass, that or the bulbs physically touching a metal part cooler then them. POINT, check for condensation, or leaks from roof or plumbing... first place for water to escape is threw ceiling fixtures.

If it was from a voltage surge, it would have to be massive, at least 240 volts+. If this is the case, you definitely need an electrician, because you have a short/flash point somewheres.

Your fixture should not use a bulb more powerful then 60 watts, unless otherwise notated. NEVER use a bulb rated at a higher wattage then the fixture was designed for. this poses a fire hazard, and possible elctrical short due to insulation melt.

I doubt your computer is at fault, unless the outlet was half switched, and half on all the time, or split between two circuits. Then you would have another whoe can of worms.

Remote light control has to be done with full power switches, or source relays of the low voltage, radio trasmit type. You can't just go throwing "contactors" in a circuit, with out proper isolation, and housing (say for serial control). No matter what you do, there is a chapter in the NEC (national electric code) covering what you want to do. If you screw up, cause a fire or such, and the fault is blamed on home owner, or non-licensed install... chances are your insurance company will not pay out!

There are a number of ways to wire remote switches, even to do what you want by hand switches, but require careful planing, wiring, and marking of wires. such a moderate to complicated endevour is not suggested for the amature.

[TerraMex]

Pro went pro.

Just to add that it's actually very easy to automate a fixture.
ex: http://www.energyenv.co.uk/RemoteSockets.asp
just an example, and you could adapt to anything you want.