X10 and lightbulbs blowing

I have a OPII system with X10 controlling the lights. The light switches are mostly unreliable so I'm going to upgrade to HLC/UPB when I have the funds. Right now though, it seems as though incandescent bulbs don't last very long with this system. There are multiple blown bulbs around the house and I replaced one and it blew again in a few weeks. The halogen lights seem to be OK but the incandescent bulbs don't last.
 
Is there noise or something related to the X10 switches that may cause this behaviour? Most of the lights in the house are floods so I'm toying with replacing them with either CFL or LED but this could be very expensive as there are so many of them!
 
I'm also getting buzzing with the halogens in some rooms (both with X10 switches and normal ones). Overall there are lots of small annoyances with the lighting that I would just like to put right.

Curious what it is you have relating to X10 switches?
 
I had X10 legacy switches installed for over 20 years (1978 to 2000's) and never had a problem until I went to using Insteon switches in the early to middle 2000's.
 
I am currently utilizing UPB for my light switches and still use X10 with no issues for my holiday lighting.
 
Go slow as I see you are still figuring out your panel.  The panel has a controller which controls your lighting.  It is probably a TW-523 and talks only to X10.  You can remove the light switch covers and see what X10 switches you have. 

Hi Pete. My switches are mostly unreliable. There is only one that works reliably and it's a remote switch. Usually I need to sit and tap a switch several times before the switch activates. And some switches have just stopped working completely. I can see in the HAI control panel that the kitchen lights were once on the system but they have all been replaced with conventional switches - I'm assuming because they went bad and it was cheaper to replace with standard switches since the house was being sold.
 
Most of the switches have a whole row of green LEDs on the left all the way along the rocker and a single blue LED on top (which can be pressed). I'll remove the panel to check the model number. I have not been able to find a picture of the switches online so I'm wondering if they are either very old or not X10.

If you can find the model number of the problem switches it may give a clue.
If they are a Smarthome X10 compatible Switchlinc. I have seen reports the small switches the paddle pushes. Sometime click but don't work.
I know early Insteon ones had problems and seen reports the older X10 ones also had issues.

It seems unlikely that the switches are causing the bulbs to blow.  One thing that can cause bulbs to fail early is a higher than normal line voltage.  Use a multimeter to check your line voltage to see if that might be the cause. 

Most of the switches have a whole row of green LEDs on the left all the way along the rocker and a single blue LED on top (which can be pressed). I'll remove the panel to check the model number.

Click to expand...

 
These sound like Insteon switches except I never saw one with an LED on the top.   I do currently have Leviton X-10 switches (and UPB) in another home connected to an OPII panel and these are working fine.  (well over 10 years now).
 
The Leviton X-10 switches look like this:
 

 
I was controlling my Insteon switches here with my OPII panel via X10 in the 2000's.
 
Yeah; taking the switch cover off will tell you what kind of switch it is.
 
Here is a picture of two types of Insteon switches from a few years ago.
 

I had the same problem when I used X10 years ago.  Lot's of blown bulbs and even blown switches.  When I changed to UPB I configured most switches to do a soft start and fade up to full lighting over 1.5 or 3.3 seconds and I quit losing bulbs.

Yup; here never had those issues with X-10 here.  Replacing these with UPB will be ideal....
 

My switches are mostly unreliable. There is only one that works reliably and it's a remote switch. Usually I need to sit and tap a switch several times before the switch activates.

Click to expand...

 
This still sounds more like an Insteon/X-10 switch.  Personally never saw an X-10 switch with LEDs on it.  My Insteon/X-10 switches did the same thing over time. 
 
I am curious what switch model OP will see after he removes the light switch cover.

I took a switch off and they are Smarthome SwitchLinc Model 2386W. A quick google and it seems that they are complete junk! That explains why the remotes work as they are not the same model.
 
I'm tempted to remove them all and replace with conventional switches just to get the lights working. I'll come back and UPB the house later.

It might be faster/better for WAF to do that right now relating to getting a working switch.  Every big box store has conventional switches for less than $10. 
 
You can also purchase a sample switch / UPB controller package to play with for a good price or bulk purchase some used legacy X10 switches too.
 
Call one of the listed automation dealers below to get a price on a 2-3 pack of UPB switches with a controller if you want to play.
 
Count up the number of automated switches you have in place today.  Figure about $50-150 per new automated switch.  This way you can sort of figure out what your spend will be to update plus the cost of doing it yourself or hiring an electrician to do it.

Just since you mentioned that you wanted to go to UPB/HLC, I'll tell you that once you do if you enable a soft start (even .8 seconds), that ramp vs. instant full voltage will save your lightbulbs.  I'm all LED now, but for years I was all incandescent and I can't remember ever changing a single lightbulb after going UPB.  It makes a huge difference.  
 
I am very familiar with X10 as my family used it back in the early days - so when I was out on my own in my 20's I tried it many times with absolutely zero success... luckily along came the internet and eventually CT (MANY years later) and I researched and discovered UPB which has been absolutely great for me.  To this day I don't think a better technology has come around so if I built a new house tomorrow I'd probably still do UPB.  There are some new things coming out but it'll take years to be able to fully assess them.

To see if it is the common microswitch issue, try them from the controller (not the local switch). If it is just the local microswitch, they can be repaired, if you are handy.

Yeah here the bulb changing started sometime in the early 2000's where as in the 1980's/1990's it wasn't an issue. 
 
This was at the time you could purchase bulbs discounted with your electrical bill payment (thinking I was picking up my bulbs at local area banks) - funny to remember the stacks of bulbs at the banks around electric payment time.  Thinking the bulb discounts made them pennies in cost.
 
Personally thinking it was more a QA bulb issue than a light switch issue (cuz they would burn out with conventional switches).  Well also recall the falling apart of the light bulb socket (glass getting detached stuff).  Still mostly at incandescent here and using a few halogen lamps.  IE: the halogen lamp in the mailbox gets dimmed to 20% every night and its been fine now for almost 10 years. 
 
A high voltage (120VAC) switch is a switch is a switch. 
 
Incandescent bulbs are made to work with old fashioned non automated switches. 
 
QA on the CCFL's was way worse than the incandescent bulbs (actually pieces UL approved circumvented original designs as a cost saving measure).
 
It shouldn't be that you have to have the "right" switch for the bulb; rather it should be the other way around (that is my opinion) especially when you want to automate a switch (which costs more than $10).
 
In the late 70's / 80's used these type of X10 switches.
 
In a 3rd world country house with bad electricity I did actually lose a few of these due to home power glitches.  Electric as bad (but water was way worse).  Later in the 80's continued to use them in the Midwest and they never did fail me. The Leviton X10 switches from the late 1990's are the ones that still work fine for me today.
 
Here too do similiar with the UPB switches for the still utilized incandescent bulbs in the house.

I just lost another bulb on the staircase step lights. When we arrived, only 2 of the 4 staircase lights were working and within a couple of days that was down to one. I replaced three to have all 4 working and now I'm back down to 2. They are 12V landscape lights with a bayonet fitting so I have ordered a LED version to trial fit. If it does, I'll replace all with LED since we leave these lights on all the time.
 
I figure $65 for the module and then $65 each for Leviton switches. I'll probably need 10 normal and 4 remote to replace existing and another 5 to put back those that were removed previously. Then there are about another 10 that I would like to add so looking at $2k in switches. I'll see if I can find any deals!

Today I control my LV (12VDC) lighting with DIN mounted 120VAC to 12VDC power supplies.  All of the power supplies are switched on or off via one UPB relay switch.  Thinking there are more than 50 but less than 100 outside LED lamps today. 
 
Here many UPB users utilize SA (Simply Automated) UPB, HAI UPB (Leviton Home Automation Inc. or PCS UPB (Powerline Control Systems)  light switches..
 
Check out the vendors here on Cocoontech under resources/vendors.  They are a friendly bunch.  Give them a call.
 
Same relating to updating your X10 switches if that is your direction.