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CFL Bulb Question

2K views 22 replies 11 participants last post by  Oso954 
#1 ·
We have CFL bulbs in my house and I have a question about them.

1. I've heard rumors of them catching on fire. Should I be concerned? Some of the bulbs are yellowed around the base of the bulb.

These things already are a pain in the a$$ because they burn out quicker and when they break they break into little, nearly microscopic pieces and releases toxic fumes into the air.
 
#9 ·
Urban myths....

There is a photo of one burned up CFL floating around the net...but given the millions and millions of CFL's installed and working....if it was an issue, I'm sure someone would have produced more than one picture of one.

I think we can accurately say that there are move CFL's in operation than automobiles.....how many car fires have you seen? Are you afraid to ride in cars now?
 
#10 ·
I have three pendant fixtures in my kitchen. Originally they had mini halogen bulbs in them. Those halogens ran so hot that the first 4-5 inches of the cable that they hung from charred and turned black. I put new sockets in them and now have 27 Watt CFLs in them. Couldn't find a similar cable, so I cut 5" off the cable, and they are now a little higher. Makes more light, uses less power, and no problems with the cables turning black.

Those halogens were perhaps a fire risk, but not the CFLs.
 
#11 ·
A little note about Halogens....

A halogen bulb is nothing more than an incandescent bulb with halogen gas it it. The principle idea behind the chemistry is that when the bulb gets hot...the tungsten starts spitting off particles (notice that gray coating on the inside of a dead bulb? That is tunsten)....

If you use halogen gas and get it hotter....the halogen gas helps to redeposit the tungsten back onto the filament....this improves the life somewhat and the hotter temps improves the efficiency by about 10%.

However, if you use those halogens with dimmers....when dimmed the temperature that the bulb needs to for halogen gas to do it's job is too low....so now a dimmed halogen is nothing more than a plain ol' incandescent bulb.

Remember all those floor lamps with the halogen bulb and the light pointed up? Notice you can't buy them any more? They've been outlawed......those lights have caused a lot more fires than any CFL light.
 
#16 ·
Hey, I want some of those bulbs....all the 60w Incandescent bulbs I've seen only put out 860 lums.....your's must be some higher efficient model

Or maybe I'll stick with my CFL's....I'm fond of the 13w models....about the same output....1/4th the cost in electricity...and last about 8-10x longer....
 
#17 ·
When they are mounted base up the heat (they do get hot) migrates to the base. I believe this shortens their life. I had one in a ceiling fan burn up. No flames but enough smoke to get my full attention.
 
#20 ·
I have used CFLs in my garage door opener for 4 years without a problem, but had nothing but problems with filiment bulbs burning out.

I recently (a year ago), put a CFL in my overhead garage light (base above the bulb) that was controlled by a Levittown motion sensor and was worried a little bit When the light switched off, there seemed to be a slight glow, since there was a transient very, very, small flow to keep the sensor alert. I did some checking thinking it was a phantom flow from the small flow. Apparently it was not, since it disappeared within a few minutes of switching off and I never felt any heat on the base of the CFL. - Possibly it was never on long enough to heat up but the bulb has been in there for a year with no problems. - I did this just because I did not like having two different colors of bulbs on at the same time plus the CFL was brighter.

Dick
 
#22 ·
Outlawed or banned is sort of a misnomer. The new law just says manuf have to meet certain efficiency standards. If the can make a 60w incandescent bulb that meets the efficiency standard..... Then they can sell it.

What a lot of people don't realize is that the US is lagging the rest of the world when it comes to lighting efficiency. Heck, there are countries in South America that had restrictions on incandescents years ago.

I get a good laugh when I hear people saying they are stock piling in Incan bulbs. Knock yourself out.
 
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