I just had an R20 indoor floodlight in a recessedceiling fixture expode. It shot glass in a good ten ft radius all around. I believe it was a Philips puchased at H.D.
Does this happen often? House is all new wire and service 5 years ago.
Mike
Small wheel turn by the fire and rod, big wheel turn by the grace of god.
Add a strap for easy carrying and pouring when working with 5-gal. buckets.
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Replies
Not "often" but it does happen.
I think that I have had it happen once or twice in 30 years here.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I have seen lightning blow them up
In the lighting biz, no joke, we have a specific term for that, especially with high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps.
It's actually called a "non-passive failure".
Means it blows up.
Forrest
Thanks for the replies. Am I getting a lower quality bulb from Depot? Do I have better chioces available, maybe online? Mike
Small wheel turn by the fire and rod, big wheel turn by the grace of god.
HD buys in volume, but if you compare the percentage of failure rate of the bulbs they sell to the total amount sold that failed I doubt that it is greater then the industry as a whole. They just sell a lot of bulbs so there is bound to be a few bad ones.But if you replace those hot energy inefficient bulbs with compact florescence you will have lower chance of that happening again and you will save energy and the bulb will last much longer. you can even get compact florescence that are dimmable. And the new bulbs do not have that slow start of the early compact florescences
But the color looks like dung. Can you recommend and CFL lights that don't look like, well, flourescent? I tried them in my kitchen fixtures and pulled them immediately. The color was HORRIBLE.
Try some different brands. There's a lot of variation in color. Some of the cheaper ones actually have better color.Also, before forming an opinion about the color let the lamp warm up for at least 30 seconds.
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. --Carl Sagan
I have yet to see CFL replacements for R20 and R38 spots and floods. Do they exist in a quality product yet?
I don't know what specific form factors are available, but in commercial buildings you see (if you look closely) a lot of CFLs in recessed fixtures, in place of what previously would have been some sort of spot/flood.
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. --Carl Sagan
These bulbs available in both R-40, R30 and Par20
And they are 5000K daylight bulbs that is the best color rendition you can get (used by artist to light their studios) and they are dimmable. Oh and I did only a quick one link google search to find these it took 5 seconds. If you are at all interested in saving energy and helping to reduce your carbon foot print you can do it with out sacrificing light quality. And you can even save your self some money on your electric bill.http://www.e3living.com/catalog/124
Edited 9/5/2008 7:52 am ET by MFournier
Note that "daylight" bulbs are not necessarily what many people want. They often prefer the somewhat yellower light of "soft white" incandescent light bulbs. There are "soft white" fluorescent bulbs that do a pretty good job, thought there's considerable variation from brand to brand.Unfortunately, few fluorescent bulbs are sold with notations of their color temp and CRI, so it's hard to choose between them.
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. --Carl Sagan
"Unfortunately, few fluorescent bulbs are sold with notations of their color temp and CRI, so it's hard to choose between them."It is strange. The linear bulbs (T-12, T-8), after years of hiding it in the catalogs, how have it on the shelf tag and/or sleave. And many are even printing it on the tube.On the other hand CFL's used to have on the package. Usually "hidden" on the back in small print, but there. And if you can't find that you could look through the blister pack and find it on the base.But the last ones that I looked did not have that.But TCP CLF's sold under the n:vision brand at HD does list them. And they have then in 3 "colors" soft white (which IIRC is 2800k), bright white (maybe 3500k) and Daylight (5000k).It is also interested to look at the number of lumens output for the 3 different colors..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Yeah, you can find the color temp on maybe 50% of the fluorecent lamps out there, but CRI is on maybe 10%. It's CRI more than color temp that tells you whether you'll have that "fluorescent" sensation from the light.
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. --Carl Sagan
No, I would say that 90%, if not more of the bulbs that have a number and not just a name for the color, have the CRI..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Well, maybe I'll do a survey next time I pass the fluorescent rack. I do know that it's hard to get a consistent set of info to compare brands.
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. --Carl Sagan
"These bulbs available in both R-40, R30 and Par20"Note the R-20 are not dimable."And they are 5000K daylight bulbs that is the best color rendition you can get (used by artist to light their studios) "No, color temp and CRI (color rendition index) are too completely different parameters.Both are based on a black body radiator. The color temp just tells where the peak of the spectrum is. It tells nothing about have "wide" it is.Now well it matches the spread of the specturm for that color temp is the CRI.And incandenscnet lamp has a color temp of about 2800k and CRI of 100.5000k is high noon sumlight.And 6500k is sometime called "natural" and it is color of the north sky.The T-12's basic warm and cool whites only had a CRI of 65-75. That is why they have such a bad reputation. But some where much better. The GE Chroma 50, was a 5000k, 95 CRI bulb.I see that E3 does not list a CRI on their website.And n:vision, which has several different color schemes, only list a color name on their website.There package list both the color temp and the CRI. They are at HD. But aren't dimable except for a small candlabra style.CRL's are typically in the 78-86 CRI..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Thanks for the color temp and CRI info. I wondered why lamps of supposedly the same light color seem to produce very different appearing light quality.BruceT
Thanx fer the info. Naturally, my application is for Par 38 bulbs.
In my shower I installed two 4" recessed cans. In one I have a CFL (9 watt, 40 watt equivalent I think), the other I have a 30 watt reflector bulb. I can't tell the difference in the light. They look exactly the same color wise, though the incandescent looks slightly dimmer.I've also noticed that CFL's need a break in period after installation. Leave them in and use them for a couple of days, you will likely be more pleased with them then.Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CAAlso a CRX fanatic!
I don't feel it's healthy to keep your faults bottled up inside me.
For the standard incandensant bulbs all of them that I have seen at the box stores are name brands. The "commercial" packs and some specialty bulbs might not be.BTW, I got large package of clear globe bulbs (like used around bathroom mirrors) at Lowes. IIRC they where GE.And about 1/2 of them the filaments inside the bulbs where broken. Had to be somekind of manufacturing defect, but I can't figure out how..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Generally this happens when the filament breaks suddenly and hot tungsten hits the glass bulb. Since most bulbs are pressurized to one degree or another the glass can go flying.
The likelihood of this sort of failure is dependent on the way the filament is made and supported inside the bulb, the thickness of the bulb, and a few other factors.
Clean your bulbs. We had this happen three times on a site once. There was excessive dust (drywall, and misc construction dust) on the bulbs.
My assumption is that they over heat and poof, thats it.
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