An Urgent Message - Risk of Fire

[Susan Kline]

Just as well to be aware of this. This is really scary.

A few details I've discovered about lights and electrical connections:

1. The tall very cheap Chinese flambeau lamps with the 300w halogen bulbs
always seem to burn out their switches, but I like their light and they
certainly aren't hard on the pocket book. Getting into one which had failed,
I removed the switch, and it said (in plain English): <<< _incandescent 
only._ >>>
"Aha!" I thought. I took connectors (the little brass springs inside the
plastic caps) and I bypassed the wires around the switch, leaving it
abandoned but in place (cosmetic value only.) Now I only use this style of
lamp from a switchable outlet. Luckily my house has three of these, in the
living room, the computer room, and the guest bedroom. They all have one
halogen flambeau each, which never are turned on or off at the fixture, but
only from the wall switches.

2. These lamps are set up to turn off if they get too hot, but I have no idea
how dependable this "safety feature" is. So, Robin's light bulbs which 
seemed burned out
may have only been turned off by the overheating safety mechanism. Hence, if
he tried them, and they seemed to be burned out, and he left them turned on
but dark, they may well have turned themselves right back on again as soon as
they cooled down, possibly cycling like this several times when no one was in
the shop. Perhaps this was what allowed the wiring to short and cause a fire.
(SORRY to hear about the fire!!!! Could have happened to anyone.)

3. I've recently been reading about LED light bulbs, which sound like a real
breakthrough for economy. I believe I read about one replacing a 45w bulb, and
drawing 1.5 watts. Has anyone tried these? Observations? And do they run hot,
or cool?

4.(OT) In pursuit of my recently-acquired hobby of preparing for Peak Oil, I
attended a program given at our organic food coop by an employee who took
electricity conservation seriously. A hobby for him, as well. He had a tiny
house, and covered the roof with PV cells, doing a lot of the work himself.
He got it down to where he is self-sufficient in electricity, and sometimes
ends up getting a few cents from the electric company.

Anyway, the real piece of information which impressed me was that anything
run by a remote control uses a tremendous amount of energy even when it is
turned off, because it is constantly scanning for the infrared signal. Some
of the VCR's use more power when turned off than when recording! Seems 
incredible,
but there it is. I thought about it. Three controls sitting on the table:
TV, DVD, and VCR, all drawing power 24/7. It adds up. So, since they were
already plugged into a power strip (surge protector), I got the habit of
walking up to them once I was done viewing, turning them off by hand, and
then switching off the power strip. The only time now I leave the strip
turned on when I'm not watching is in case I want to record something
when I'm gone. When I set it up to record I have to enter the time in
the VCR, because of course it forgets when it is once the power is off.

5.(OT) I'm about to get two sun tubes, one for the hallway, and one for
the windowless guest bathroom. Has anyone else gotten these, and how have
they been? Any drawbacks I should know about up front?

TIA

Robin, thanks for the heads up. You may have saved other people some real
grief.

Susan Kline

At 12:47 AM 7/20/2005 +0000, you wrote:
> > List Members,
> > Some important information follows - do not delete without reading
> > first.
> > It is well known that halogen lamps get sufficiently hot that they
> > sometimes ignite adjacent combustible material causing a fire - although
> > this does not appear, at the moment to be the case in this situation,
> > which is usually the first thing people think of when a fire is mention
> > in the context of these lamps, it seems this did not happen in the case
> > recounted below as the bulbs were evaluated, would not work, and were
> > thought to be burned out.
> > A fire developed in my shop several months ago doing widespread,
> > extensive damage, ruining the value in many expensive pianos.
> > Although the ca! use of origin is still being investigated I am convinced
> > that the fire began in a halogen work light in which, as I said above,
> > the bulbs were not working, even though the power cord was still plugged
> > in. The light had been plugged in to evaluate the bulbs which were
> > thought to be burned out. They did not work; later, I belive, the
> > light itself developed a fire which then spread into the shop.
> > This light is the yellow and black worklight built by Chicago
> > Electric and sold at Harbor Freight. It comes on an extendable tripod
> > with two lamps mounted on a crosspiece. Each lamp is provided with its
> > own switch.
> > The power cord for this light comes up to a small black junction
> > box out of which two cords then proceed, each to the respective
> > switch for its lamphead.
> > Additional information has been discovered, unconnected with me or
> > my shop, which indicates that ! the connections in the interior of this
> > junction box may be unreliable, and, if so, it is my opinion, they can
> > indeed be dangerous as it appears that this box was either the origin of
> > the fire or connected in someway to it.
> > I have not disassembled one of these boxes even though I have
> > several of these lights as they are to be preserved intact for later
> > investigation.
> > However, several individuals, unknown to each other, operating
> > entirely independently of each other, have described to me the
> > connections made in the interior of this box, where a crimp is used to
> > attach the cord to a connector, in highly negative terms, basically,
> > considering it dangerous. Of course, this is a fact I wish I had been
> > aware of before buying the damn things. This crimp may loosen and
> > cause problems and needs periodic attention. I presonally believe
> > this contributed to the d! evelopment of the fire mentioned above.
> > For this reason it seems highly advisable to inspect this
> > connection if you have such a light. One should be aware, if a loose
> > connection does exist here, that it may lead one to think the switches
> > or bulbs are bad which may or may not be the case. UNDER NO
> > CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD THE LIGHT EVER BE LEFT PLUGGED IN - BURNING OR NOT
> > - WITHOUT OBSERVATION. I believe it can also lead to a fire.
> > Let is remember our OT list discipline; if one wishes to
> > communicate with me on this subject, unless it has a general interest to
> > the members of the list, please contact me privately.
> > Regards, Robin Hufford