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Watch Out for those CF Bulbs


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I was sitting in my living room when the ceiling light fixture started to smoke.

I turned off the light and investigated I discovered one the CF bulbs had started to burn.

I called my fire department and they told me that this is something that happens frequently and can cause fires.

Here is a link for more info:

http://www.execulink.com/~impact/fluorescent_lights.htm

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/200...cent-bulbs.html

This surprised me:

It will also explain dos and don'ts for using the bulbs. For example, they need to be used in an open-light fixture rather than a closed-light fixture since they generate heat, the authority said.
Can someone explain what I am supposed to put in closed fixture when I can't buy incandescent bulbs anymore? Edited by Riverwind
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I was sitting in my living room when the ceiling light fixture started to smoke.

I turned off the light and investigated I discovered one the CF bulbs had started to burn.

I called my fire department and they told me that this is something that happens frequently and can cause fires.

Here is a link for more info:

http://www.execulink.com/~impact/fluorescent_lights.htm

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/200...cent-bulbs.html

This surprised me:

Can someone explain what I am supposed to put in closed fixture when I can't buy incandescent bulbs anymore?

Once again, science has been trumped by trendiness!

Or, as someone once put it:

"It doesn't have to work, as long as we can say we've got one!"

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What brand bulbs were you using? Did they carry the CSA or ULC logo on them?

More energy is converted to heat in an incandescent bulb than a compact-fluorescent bulb. If the fixture overheated from a CFL, then an incandescent bulb would have been even worse.

Cheaper nameless brands do not employ the same safety measures as the major companies like Philips, Sylvania and GE.

A compact-fluorescent bulb operates the same way as a regular tube fluorescent. There is an electrode at either end of the twisted tube that fire electrons through the bulb. A reaction with the phosphors and mercury generates light. This process is regulated by an electronic ballast in the base of the bulb. When the bulb expires, cheaper brand bulbs may continue firing causing the plastic base to overheat, melt or possibly catch fire. It is perfectly normal for all bulbs to blacken at the end of the tubes though. Philips CFL light bulbs (I only know the details about their safety precautions, not the other brands mentioned above) employ a number of safety strategies to mitigate the potential dangers inherent in this product. The electronic components detect when the bulb has expired and stops the firing process of the electrodes. Furthermore, the plastic base of the lightbulbs is made of a dripless, heat resistant plastic, so if something does happen where the bulb catches fire, you won't have burning hot plastic napalm dripping from your lights.

It depends on what kind of CFLs you purchase, but if you stick with the major brands--Philips in particular anyway--you can rest assured that you have a safe product in your home. Safety features aside, the fact remains that CFLs generate much less heat than their incandescent equivalents. CFLs have less energy wasted as heat and that is why they're a lower wattage and cost less to operate.

I'm sorry to say this, but whomever you spoke with at the fire department does not know what they're talking about. They have probably had poor experiences with the cheap bulbs smoldering, but are completely unaware of the safety features built into the various brands. Furthermore, how many bad experiences have they had compared to the number of CFLs people have in their home? How does that compare to the number of bad experiences they have had with regular incandescent bulbs? Remember those halogen tube lamps that were all the rage a few years back? Those were a fire-fighting nightmare because of the heat they generated.

Anyway, don't buy your CFLs from the dollar store. Stick to recognizable brands like Philips and Sylvania and you shouldn't have any problems in the future. If you do, or you haven't purchased off-name brand bulbs, you might want to check your light fixture itself to ensure that it's CSA or ULC approved, and that there are no other problems with it.

Edited by cybercoma
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What brand bulbs were you using? Did they carry the CSA or ULC logo on them?

More energy is converted to heat in an incandescent bulb than a compact-fluorescent bulb. If the fixture overheated from a CFL, then an incandescent bulb would have been even worse.

I've always been more offended by the fact that the lighting portion of a household's power consumption is mice nuts compared to the power drawn by electric stoves and the motors in refrigerators, freezers, furnaces and of course, dishwashers and clothes dryers.

The savings of CF's to an individual's power bill are trivial. It only becomes a significant saving to OPG to avoid coming up with new generation supplies and thus, I suppose, less taxes on our heads to pay for that.

Anyhow, I've had CF's burn out too. The last one was a Sylvania. I don't recall the one before that. It was never the fixture that burned out. A fixture is a relatively crude device and is not bothered by the heat of an incandescent bulb. The problem was with the trapped heat burning out the electronics in the ballast/base of the CF.

Being a techie, these 'touchy-feely' 'solutions' that are not really based on science but more on politics can often bother me greatly. So much so that for last night with 'Earth Hour' I turned on every light in my house in protest! ;)

Volts and Watts don't give a damn about cheerleading. Something either works or it doesn't. Mother Nature couldn't care less about how people feel about her laws.

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What brand bulbs were you using? Did they carry the CSA or ULC logo on them?
Luminous. CSA approved 13W in a socket rated for 60W. Should have been fine.
Anyway, don't buy your CFLs from the dollar store. Stick to recognizable brands like Philips and Sylvania and you shouldn't have any problems in the future. If you do, or you haven't purchased off-name brand bulbs, you might want to check your light fixture itself to ensure that it's CSA or ULC approved, and that there are no other problems with it.
Fixture is CSA approved as well. What bothers me more than the fire dept guy who is probably taking a better safe than sorry attitude is the only reference I can find on the net to the problem is an obscure comment from the Ontario Electrical Safety Association who says I should not put the bulbs in closed fixtures. What can I do with that?

Your advice sounds reasonable and is appreciated but I would rather have some official recommendations I can point to in case a problem does occur.

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