Expert: Greg Hughes - 11/4/2009

Question
I live in a older home and my kitchen and bath overhead lights are on the same circuit. I also have 2 wall plugs that are connected to same circuit. My problem is that when the 2 overhead lights are on, sometimes they get hot and shut themselves off. Breaker doesn't trip, just the lights shut off. After an hour or so they come back on. Also if the kitchen light is just turned on after being off for awhile, it makes like a popping sound for a few minutes. Its not very loud, but you can hear it. What could be causing these things to happen and how can it be fixed?

Answer
The first things to look for are wrong wattage bulbs and wrong type of bulbs. Each light is built for a specific type of bulb with a max wattage.

Also, you will want to look at the wire or hire an electrician to make sure your circuits are not overloaded for the wire size.