Beware of energy saving light bulbs.

the_devil_made_me_do_it

In most rooms of my house I have energy saving bulbs. My front room is no exception. The bulbs I have are not new, they have been giving me light for a while now.

Anyway, I was sat in the front room with the big light on, when it started flickering. I initially just assumed there was an energy dip, however, it kept intermittently flickering. Then I could smell an nondescript faint smell & it appeared to be coming from the bulb. I immediately turned off the light & checked it out.

The part of the bulb which goes into the plastic casing had started to melt & the area around it looked brown/black (burnt colour).

It was lucky I was home & not out somewhere, as I shudder to think what might have happened.

bedpotato_2

If you were out you surely would not have left the light on.

Do you normally leave lights on when you go out?

Looksguywalker

the_devil_made_me_do_it wrote: »

In most rooms of my house I have energy saving bulbs. My front room is no exception. The bulbs I have are not new, they have been giving me light for a while now.

Anyway, I was sat in the front room with the big light on, when it started flickering. I initially just assumed there was an energy dip, however, it kept intermittently flickering. Then I could smell an nondescript faint smell & it appeared to be coming from the bulb. I immediately turned off the light & checked it out.

The part of the bulb which goes into the plastic casing had started to melt & the area around it looked brown/black (burnt colour).

It was lucky I was home & not out somewhere, as I shudder to think what might have happened.

I have had similar incidents with crappy older bulbs. I do not 'shudder' I get on with life and dealt with it every time without a drama.

Next?

soolin

bedpotato wrote: »

If you were out you surely would not have left the light on.

Do you normally leave lights on when you go out?

I do as our local crime prevention unit suggests it in their leaflet about preventing opportunist thieves as it might just give the impression someone is home.

However, I am amazed that these nasty new bulbs last long enough to get that hot. Mine throw a dull nasty yellow light with gets duller after a few days until they are basically throwing no light at all, at which point I chuck them and install another. They are costing me a fortune as my old bulbs lasted for years and these need repalcing after a few weeks.

Azari

soolin wrote: »

However, I am amazed that these nasty new bulbs last long enough to get that hot. Mine throw a dull nasty yellow light with gets duller after a few days until they are basically throwing no light at all, at which point I chuck them and install another. They are costing me a fortune as my old bulbs lasted for years and these need repalcing after a few weeks.

You must be getting your bulbs from a very dodgy source. (apparently there are some very cheap ones available that do suffer from various problems.)

They do give of a pretty nasty colour balance but there is no way in the world that their output should drop after a few days.

I've had all mine for eight years (from when I moved) and only had one failure.

gregg1

One interesting point with these bulbs is that they can affect your remote control for the telly.

We have a new tv and the remote kept going wrong. We have a lamp with one of the new bulbs in next to the tv snd the engineer told us to replace it with an old bulb as the new ones emit some sort of signals which can play havoc with a remote. He reckoned it is pretty common. Changed the bulb and no problems any more.

GoPD

Agree the early energy saving bulbs were quite poor but I've found the ones they sell now take only a second or two to warm up and give a good light.

You could always try led bulbs if you are that unhappy?

Abbafan1972

I had an energy saving bulb once, it had been used quite a lot and for no apparent reason started to make a really loud buzzing noise, could no longer use it, changed it for another one and everything was fine after that.

jb66

Abbafan1972 wrote: »

I had an energy saving bulb once, it had been used quite a lot and for no apparent reason started to make a really loud buzzing noise, could no longer use it, changed it for another one and everything was fine after that.

Fantastic story :money:

spadoosh

LED is the future for energy saving bulbs. I quite happily leave my light on all the time (in the kitchen) running 4 gu10's at something like 0.2w each....

Takes a while to get used to the light given off but i dunno seems to be a more pure/natural light so to speak.

spadoosh

jb66 wrote: »

Fantastic story :money:

Awesome post:money: