Exploding Lightbulb!

TheBanker

Hi

Yesterday I went to turn my light on and it wouldn't work. I checked the fuse box and it looked like the fuse had blown. Not having any spare fuses I decided to leave it until this morning to sort out. I have lamps and a torch!

Anyway, when it was time to retire for the night I went into my bedroom with the torch and noticed (luckily!) that there was broken glass all over the floor and bed. One of the light bulbs seems to have exploded. I may have left the bedroom light on yesterday morning. I don't recall hearing a bang but my neighbour was doing some building work yesterday morning so there was a lot of banging anyway.

I slept in the guest room rather than deal with the broken glass at midnight!

So today I've cleaned up the mess and now have a couple of things to do:

1) Buy a new light bulb!
2) Try to get the remains of the old bulb out of the fitting. I want to buy some safety goggles first as I am worried about flakes of glass coming loose. Hopefully I'll be able to get this out without too much difficulty.

So what I am wondering is, if I replace the bulb and the fuse, will this be ok? Or should I get someone to check the electrics?

Sorry if this is a silly question but I've never known this happen before. Obviously I don't want it to happen again, it could have been very nasty had I not noticed what had happened.

Also I have the same light fitting in my living room and think the bulbs in there came from the same pack as the ones in the bedroom. Is it sensible to replace that bulb as well?

thescouselander

It's probably a manufacturing problem with the bulb. Sometimes they can develop a sudden leak and when the air rushes into the bulb, which was previously under a vacuum, the sudden change in pressure causes a more spectacular failure.

FreeBear

TheBanker wrote: »

2) Try to get the remains of the old bulb out of the fitting. I want to buy some safety goggles first as I am worried about flakes of glass coming loose. Hopefully I'll be able to get this out without too much difficulty.

Make sure the light is turned off and use a thick cloth (or gloves) to wrap round the remains of the bulb. If it is a standard bayonet fitting, it should be very easy to remove without the risk of glass shards going everywhere.

TheBanker

FreeBear wrote: »

Make sure the light is turned off and use a thick cloth (or gloves) to wrap round the remains of the bulb. If it is a standard bayonet fitting, it should be very easy to remove without the risk of glass shards going everywhere.

It was a screw fitting so slightly more awkward. But it was ok... I put my thick gardening gloves and my DIY goggles on and put an old sheet over the floor to catch any shards of glass. I managed to get it out without too much difficulty using pliers.

I hope nobody saw me (due to lack of light I had the curtains wide open) - I must have looked a right tool.

Anyway, all done now and all seems to be ok. All debris picked up and floors well vacuumed. I decided to replace all the bulbs (the fitting has 3) because the other two came from the same pack so if it was a faulty bulb there is a good chance one of them would have blown at some point.

Looking at where the glass landed relative to the lamp, it looks like the bulb flew out like a bullet! The glass was about 50cm away from the light.