my head light globes keep blowing up

[pstanbis]

i found that the narva cool-blue globes also have a shorter life span. Had some yellow-e standard ones in there for a while (pretty pale after the blue) but the lasted. Local auto shop guy says that the blue ones always have a shorter life - and there twice the price ! buggers who set these things up should be shot...

[JimX]

A lot of the cheaper blue bulbs (I think this includes Narva) work by running the bulb out of spec to make it give off enough light to get past the blue filter. If they didn't do this they would look too dim. Because they are over-powered, they die a lot quicker. I imagine there are some "white" bulbs which are also driven out of spec and also die early.

A lot of REALLY cheap blue bulbs don't even bother with over-powering them, and they look dim from the outset. The "good" blue bulbs use correct filters and filaments and give off enough light to look bright, without having to sacrifice bulb longevity. (Osram and Philips are 2 of the "good" brands of blue bulb manufacturers, there are others.)

There are some interesting articles about blue bulbs on Daniel Stern's Lighting site, but the links about good and bad blue bulbs are currently down. Hopefully they'll be up by the time you read this, if you're interested.