CFL Bulbs

[gadgetgary]

Could this be true?

CFL Light Bulbs WARNING!!

Please be aware of this type of occurrence in your own home.

With all the emphasis on conserving energy, many families and even offices are routinely replacing bulbs with this type.

Safety Message

Below is a picture of a CFL light bulb from my bathroom. I turned it on the other day and then smelled smoke after a few minutes. Four inch flames were spewing out of the side of the ballast like a blow torch! I immediately turned off the lights. But I'm sure it would have caused a fire if I was not right there. Imagine if the kids had left the lights on as usual when they were not in the room.

I took the bulb to the Fire Department to report the incident. The Fireman wasn't at all surprised and said that it was not an uncommon occurrence. Apparently, sometimes when the bulb burns out there is a chance that the ballast can start a fire. He told me that the Fire Marshall had issued reports about the dangers of these bulbs.

Upon doing some Internet research, it seems that bulbs made by "Globe" in China seem to have the lion's share of problems. Lots of fires have been blamed on misuse of CFL bulbs, like using them in recessed lighting, pot lights, dimmers or in track lighting. Mine was installed in a normal light socket.
I bought these at Wal-Mart. I will be removing all the Globe bulbs from my house.

 

[gadgetgary]

Sorry

Cannot get the pic to print!

 

[joeekaitis]

Thought so. Click link.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/cflbulb.asp

 

[joeekaitis]

Oh, and the damage shown in the photo . . .

. . . looks suspiciously like what happens if the user holds the glass coil instead of the base while tightening the bulb. A microfracture won't affect the performance for a while but the heating and cooling of normal use may exacerbate the damage over time until POP! FZZZZZT!

 

[DADoES]

 
The CFLs I've had that failed were all reflector-floodlamp type bulbs used in my recessed ceiling can fixtures.  They simply went dead, with no "pop" sound.  I can't say about burning on the base, the CFL bulb & base is enclosed in the glass reflector.  I think operating in a base-up orientation in the can fixtures accelerates deterioration of the ballast due to heat exposure.

I've not had any non-reflector "curlies" fail thus far, except the one I dropped.

 

[qsd-dan]

I overheard a couple of maintenance guys at work talk about how another CFL "Turned into a blowtorch." I prodded them to discuss it into further detail and they said it wasn't very common, but not that uncommon either.

So far, all of the CFL's that I have had go bad (I'm phasing them out 'cause they seem have a much shorter lifespan than incans in my house) simply quit working. No blowtorch effect or even smoke.

 

[cfz2882]

i have heard lots of nasty stories about cheap chinese made CFLs flaming up...
a couple years ago,i bought some GE CFLs from a salvaged freight company,
these were early 2000s vintage and made in hungary-i have been pleased with these
but they do take a min.or 2 to get to full brightness when they are started cold
these did have a bit of a design fault in that the "ballast"electronics
in the base are not vented,run hot and eventually fail(start to flicker,then pop
-dead)i carefully drilled some vent holes in the base and that eliminated the
the overheating and failures of the electronics.
Earlier this year a local restaurant swapped all their bulbs to CFLs but
recently i have noticed they seem to be swapping back to inchandecent...

 

[joelippard]

Until I read this

and other articles I had these things in my house. Our electric company gave them to us for free. When I changed them (about 6 weeks ago)I kept all my old bulbs. Today at lunch I promptly removed them all and returned my old incandescents into their respective fixtures and threw all the CFL's in the garbage. Something may cause a fire but it's not going to if I can prevent it.

 

[bugsyjones]

There's not a single CFL in the house. I've never purchased one and do not intend to. It's pretty obvious that they're not as great as everyone predicted.

If there was a problem with the incandescent bulb, then it would have been discontinued long ago.

~Tim

 

[frigilux]

I purchased a bunch of CFL's at Home Depot about five years ago and replaced every light (both fixtures and lamps) in my house. I've had two burn out, both in the bathroom in a ceiling fixture that's right next to the exhaust fan, so it experiences some vibration. No drama in the burnouts; they simply quit working.

I did not, however, realize that CFL's shouldn't go into recessed lighting fixtures. I have one installed in the recessed light over my kitchen sink. It gets used a lot and I've never had a problem....but I'm going to take it out today. I looked all over an extra package of CFL's I have in the garage (same brand, Eco Smart) and it didn't say anything about not using them in recessed (in ceiling) fixtures. By accident, I looked underneath the package and sure enough, there it was: "WARNING: Do not use CFL bulbs in recessed/unvented lighting fixtures." Why put something that important on the bottom side of a package?! Who would look there?

Eco Smart bulbs are among the best. They start brighter, achieve full brightness quickly, and the light is a natural color. I received a free CFL (don't recall the brand) from my local utility and it was terrible. The light was greenish, it started quite dim and took a fairly long time to achieve full brightness. They were bad advertising for CFLs, that's for sure. Had that been my first experience with a CFL, I probably wouldn't have switched to them.

 

[mattl]

I switched out maybe 1/3 of my lighting to CFLs, there are places I just can't tolerate them, recessed lights for one, so those stayed halogen.  I've been using CFLs in my lamp posts for years, never a problem, they just burn out, no fire type issues.  I'll keep an eye on the CFLS and see if anything develops, but they will stay for now.