Energy saving lightbulbs safety issue?

trace-j

We've just had our house rewired by our electrician friend. We used IKEA energy saving bulbs for years with no problems. Had a number of dimmer switches installed and we were told we couldn't use the energy saving bulbs with them only normal bulbs.

smidge_2

Hi

Just came on and read the replys. I'm a bit dence in the electrical department though so i didn't understand all of it. Not sure wether im supposed to use names but it was a philips bulb with a white holster thingie. When the fire brigade showed us it the whole of the white bit was either melted or blackend, the glass has broken but only disintigrated when they took it out. I know that i paid about £12 for this bulb as i said i have always used them i baught one a month when i could afford them as having economy 7 heaters at my first house ment i had to do some serious money saving with the electric.

Oh and markymarkd i had one of the other light bulbs explode as i sat underneath it when i lived cheap and cheerfully at my mums i ended up with 6 stitches i completely agree.

trace-j

Just an extra thought, make a complaint to your local trading standards department who can investigate. If the bulb was part of a multipack, might be worth digging out the remainder of the batch. At the very least Philips need to be made aware of the incident.

You do have rights under The Consumer Protection act where can take action against the manufacturer (as opposed to retailer like usual statutory rights) where an unsafe product has caused damage to persons or property over £275. More info can be found at the DTI website. It may be worth writing a letter and sending some photos of the damage to see what sort of response you get.

Ignite

Just a late add in to this. Most of the smaller "industrial" lighting fitted these days where I work are using energy saving bulbs. Some use a normal BC or ES fitting, but others are based on I think they call it 2D connectors where you only replace the tube fitting and not the rest of the electronics. All of these lights are designed to be left switched on all the time. Therefore, if they are based on energy saving bulbs, I would think that the fitting manufacturers don't have a problem with the bulbs. Also, if you were not meant to leave a bulb on all the time, it would have a safety note on the packaging. I've yet to see one.

Andy

Poppycat

I have used them for years and also have it in the upstairs hallway for same reason, so as kids can see whengoing to toliet as they have to climb one step and should they fall they could go down to the other side of the step a flight of stairs. The bulb is fitted with a shade and also close to some very old polysterence tiles. The bulb is normally on from dusk to 2-3 am so at its worse in the winter time they could be on for over 11 hours. I do have a smoke detector very close. I have bene using energy bulbs for almost 15 years at that time they cost over a tenner each. Never had any problems with them unlike spotlights I have diown stairs that last a few months each.