Exploding bulbs

[haraldo]

Do you think bulbs explode? Yes they do, and they are bleeding dangerous!

Very scary moment at home today, my wife turned on the light in the bathroom and the bulb exploded, completely shattering the glass-bulb of the lamp sending shattered pieces of glass all over the bathroom. Fortunately this light switch was outside the bathroom. I am shivering by the thought of what could happen if my wife was inside and somehow facing the lamp. These pieces of ricochetting glass pieces could hit you anywhere, also even in the eyes.

This was an "old style" regular bulb. I am not sure what my advise would be, but probably to check any bulb you do have in your house, these are dangerous things.

I will probably change to led bulbs or something else really safe all over / everywhere.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

In other news, knifes tend to be dangerous as they could cut humans too.
Srrsly, why in the world you'd have a incandescent light bulb in your home? LED bulbs rock and use less than 1/10 of the power. (They also don't violently explode, especially the bathroom where high humidity will indefinably shorten incandescent light bulbs lifespan)

 

[haraldo]

In other news, knifes tend to be dangerous as they could cut humans too.
Srrsly, why in the world you'd have a incandescent light bulb in your home? LED bulbs rock and use less than 1/10 of the power. (They also don't violently explode, especially the bathroom where high humidity will indefinably shorten incandescent light bulbs lifespan)

Why do you want to save power?
It's so cheap, and most saving bulbs provide horrible, cold light

From another side, old style bulbs are banned all over EU.
But I'm not convinced that all types of saving bulbs are safe.....

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

2500k LED light is pretty warm. Man, you need to open to wonders of 21st century and perks it has to offer
I agree 5k or highers are too blue, but honestly as long as you match the color light on ALL of the bulbs even your wife won't notice the difference.

 

[TLS Guy]

Why do you want to save power?
It's so cheap, and most saving bulbs provide horrible, cold light

From another side, old style bulbs are banned all over EU.
But I'm not convinced that all types of saving bulbs are safe.....

I have had incandescent bulbs explode over the years. Change to LED. They are not cold. You can choose the heat you want. The light is a lot better and easier to read by. Also don't waste energy even of its cheap.

 

[TheWarrior]

I have had incandescent bulbs explode over the years. Change to LED. They are not cold. You can choose the heat you want. The light is a lot better and easier to read by. Also don't waste energy even of its cheap.

He's right. You literally pick the color of the light you want when choosing the bulb. LED still isn't 100% with dimming like halogens, but that should be coming along shortly...

 

[TLS Guy]

He's right. You literally pick the color of the light you want when choosing the bulb. LED still isn't 100% with dimming like halogens, but that should be coming along shortly...

With good quality LED bulbs and the Lutron Maestro dimmer for LEDs, the dimming is as good or better then incandescent/halogen dimming.

 

[TheWarrior]

With good quality LED bulbs and the Lutron Maestro dimmer for LEDs, the dimming is as good or better then incandescent/halogen dimming.

When I first started renovating the house, LED's just came out and were rather poor quality, so I've got some CFL fixtures (which will be be fine) and CFL Lutron dimmers (which won't be fine).

I'll keep the halogens in the living room though, still unbeaten for range of dimming!

 

[TLS Guy]

When I first started renovating the house, LED's just came out and were rather poor quality, so I've got some CFL fixtures (which will be be fine) and CFL Lutron dimmers (which won't be fine).

I'll keep the halogens in the living room though, still unbeaten for range of dimming!

With my set up there is nothing wrong with LED dimming.

 

[its phillip]

I replaced all of my bulbs with LED a couple years ago. I don't think I ever had an incandescent explode on me however. Glad nobody was in the room when it happened.

 

[haraldo]

We're still sometimes getting some low power regular bulbs due to the fact that we just can't get low power led bulbs with the same warm cozy light.... probably markets are different.

In this case we were just unlucky as it's in our 2nd fkat... A flat we just bought in Kyiv Ukraine, about to finish a renivation, we changed most bulbs to safe, good ones, mostly led.

A few we didn't yet manage to change, and then .... WAMM

Good lesson for us

How about Halogen bulbs, are they safe?

Long term, there will be smart home, smart lights, smart appliances, all connected to Apple Home

I heard once of a coffee machine exploding, and the kettle exploded with ricochetting glass pieces killing the owner.... not sure which brand of coffee machine.... but it doesn't stop me from making cofee in machine

 

[mtrycrafts]

... and most saving bulbs provide horrible, cold light
.....

You mean you don't like the color of daylight, 5500K? Or just so used to the old incandescent bulb at about 2700K.

 

[TheWarrior]

We're still sometimes getting some low power regular bulbs due to the fact that we just can't get low power led bulbs with the same warm cozy light.... probably markets are different.

In this case we were just unlucky as it's in our 2nd fkat... A flat we just bought in Kyiv Ukraine, about to finish a renivation, we changed most bulbs to safe, good ones, mostly led.

A few we didn't yet manage to change, and then .... WAMM

Good lesson for us

How about Halogen bulbs, are they safe?

Long term, there will be smart home, smart lights, smart appliances, all connected to Apple Home

I heard once of a coffee machine exploding, and the kettle exploded with ricochetting glass pieces killing the owner.... not sure which brand of coffee machine.... but it doesn't stop me from making cofee in machine

Halogens are great, you just can't put bare hands on them. Remind me if I make it to Sweden later this year, I'll bring ya some LED's!

 

[MrBoat]

Dig the LED bulbs. I'm typically a hard sale with newer tech if it's been rushed and with erratic performance. But I gave LEDs a try and they work quite well.

I also use CFL's in grow lamps I have built for my early season garden projects, which work very well for that without generating a lot of heat.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

Almost anything electric is capable of "explosion" or fire. Your issue is not so much that a bulb can shatter, it's that you are possibly using a bare bulb without an enclosure in a bathroom. If the bulb is installed in the ceiling, that is against the electrical code.

Incandescents are considered inefficient because they are rated based on the assumption there is wanted output (light) and unwanted output (heat). The two add up to 100% of the energy used.

If the heat is wanted output, they are nearly 100% efficient*. So, is your bathroom cold, or colder than you would prefer when bathing? If so, it is "green" to continue to use incandescents, as the lost heat would have to be replaced by increased consumption of oil, gas or electricity.

Ideally you would switch spring and fall from incandescents for winter and LEDs for summer if you live somewhere where home heating is required in winter. There is a somewhat famous study done about 20 years ago by BC Hydro (an electric utility) that concluded a province-wide switch to CFL bulbs would require $600 million worth of added heating costs.

* For example, a 60w incandescent where the heat is wanted output, and is considered based on light output being the only wanted output at 20% efficiency, then 48 watts would be consumed for heating and 12 watts for lighting.

Electric heating appliances are very efficient; the issue with electric heat is the conversion to electricity at the utility from fossil fuels is somewhat inefficient. If your local utility uses green power then the utilities' efficiency is excellent. Once turned to current at the utility, electric heat appliances are in the 95+ percentile, comparable to the highest tech heating ability from other fuels, and more efficient than older oil or gas home heating units, and always more efficient than wood heat.

 

[slipperybidness]

I really despise CFLs. The issue is that they contain Mercury and must be treated as HazMat. Really, the same goes for normal tube fluorescent bulbs too. Countless times I see tubes sticking out of trash cans, when these must go to the HazMat center.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

Well, when 70+ % of people in the US refuse to recycle motor oil*, I don't see how lawmakers expected people to properly dispose of CFL bulbs. The premature push to CFL (versus waiting for LEDs to catch up) was ill-advised, but typical of lawmakers who rely on lobbyists for their technical education.

I am all-LED in my home, with the exception of switching back to Quartz incandescents in my kitchen track lighting in fall, and to LED in spring. I started the switch to LED slowly, buying the expensive versions slowly when the media was still pushing CFLs. Now they are so inexpensive that it's not really worth the effort to seek out incandescents unless you have a heat value to address, like an unheated porch in winter, or for the dog house.

* Motor Oil is 100% recyclable. The contaminants and additive package degrade, but the cleaned base stock is identical to new stock.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

We are still mostly Incandescent indoors. I always figured I would just change to LED as bulbs burn out but our house is now about 11 years old and we have had very few bulbs burn out.

I have never had a bulb explode but I did break a whisky glass, unloading it from the dishwasher, last night and cut my hand. I will probably continue to drink whisky.

We do use all LED outside though.