About a year and a half ago, we remodeled our kitchen and had Kichler xenon low-voltage under cabinet light strips put in, with a single wall switch to control them all and high/off/low switches on the individual strips. One of the strips under a narrow cabinet has just a single bulb. I keep it set on bright because it better matches the output of the multiple lights in the other strips, which are on the dim setting. The bulb in the single-light strip began to cast a dim bluish light and burned out within 3 months. Three more bulbs did the same. The last bulb seems to have crisped the ceramic socket, or at least it's brown in the area around where the pins of the bulb go in.

I expected this light to burn out faster than the others - but that fast? And do xenon bulbs normally turn silver when they burn out? The bulb called for on the fixture label is a T5 base Xenon bulb, max. 20 watts, 12.5 volts, and the actual bulb is an 18 watt bulb. More than wondering if the bulb in this strip ought to burn out this fast, am I going to set the house afire if I keep the fixture on high? And what does it mean that the bulb socket has turned brown near the bulb? Is there something wrong with the fixture itself?