compact fluorescent bulbs ok inside fixture?

Hi,

Recently I purchased some of those new small compact fluorescent bulbs that can replace standard incandescent light bulbs, and on the packaging there was a warning about not using them in an "enclosed, recessed" fixture. Does this mean they can't be used in a ceiling fixture that is covered with glass? If not, why not? What's the danger/risk?

Thanks,

Allen

Reply to
Allen
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Hi,

I have used them in recesed fixtures with success. See if they are warm whites or cool whites. Sometimes the heat stays in and actually causes the fliiments to burn out real fast but with cool white compacts I never had a problem. They look weird in ceiling fixtures to be honest though so make sure they aren't sticking out and looking ugly.

candice

Reply to
CLSSM00X7

Tacking on my 2 cents worth...I think part of the reason they reccommend against it is that they do NOT do well at all when used upside down. I'm sure it's a heat issue. I tried using one in my basement, the typical screwed-to-the-underside-of- the-joist ceramic fixture with a pull chain, and I went through 3 of them before it finally sunk in. Coincidentally, I've had one in an enclosed fixture above my kitchen sink that's going on two years old now and doing just fine, but it's oriented -horizontaly-. I don't think any of that is by chance, that's how they behave.

Reply to
I-zheet M'drurz

The electronics in the base overheat and burn out when used upside down

Reply to
mark Ransley

Reply to
Art Todesco

I had one installed hanging upside down in a pot light on my front porch for 10 years. It was on approximately 12 hours per day for all that time. It never burned out--it failed when the bulb finally separated from the base. Of course, it could have been a fluke.

Does the literature on the bulbs say not to hang them?

Rick

Reply to
Java Man (Espressopithecus)

The base of a CFL contains the ballast for the bulb. The ballast has a number of electrical components in it. If you use the bulb in an enclosed fixture or any fixture where airflow around the bulb is restricted, the heat generated by the lamp has nowhere to go. This will cause the ballast to get hotter than it should, and will cause it to fail prematurely.

Reply to
Me

Not all of them. I have three of them in a stairwell at work. Two have been going for about 4 years now. One has been replaced after about 3 years. They are on 24/7 Ed

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I think the key words here are "enclosed and recessed". I agree with what others have said about not operating them in a tightly closed fixtures. Also, the manufacturer may just have been trying to make sure he CYAd himself.

I've been using them for years in my basement, garage and closets where they're sticking down from regular porcelain sockets, so there's plenty of airflow around them. I've also got them in open topped ceiling fixtures which hang slightly below the ceiling surface, so again there's plenty of room for convection to move the around them. Haven't had to change one out yet, and I get a little less frustrated when the kids leave them on. (None of my forbearers was named Edison) :-)

I modified the pair of entry fixtures alongside our front door by replacing the three candelabra sockets and bulbs inside each of them with a single standard sized socket and a 13 watt CFL. Doesn't look as sexy as those three little flame shaped 25 watt bulbs did, but its a damn site easier to maintain, I was constantly dragging out the stepladder and scratching my wrists changing out one of those little bulbs about once a month. The CFLs have been in almost two years now, so I think it was worth the hour or so it took to make the conversion. Those CFLs are a little slow brightening up on turnon in the winter, but WTF, they work.

So at the Mainiacs say, "Pretty is as pretty does."

Jeff

-- Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can keep smiling when things go wrong, you've thought of someone to place the blame on."

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

What the heck are you talking about. There is no upside down.... They work in any direction. Every fixture in my home has them, both sealed and exposed. I also use them in my unheated garage and they even light in winter when the temps are way below freezing. The garage and basement ones are in those porcelain fixtures.

I dont see any reason not to use them in a recessed fixture if the fixture was made for standard indecesant bulbs. These florescents are MUCH cooler than indecesant bulbs.

One note, in my unheated garage they take longer to get fully bright in the cold weather.

Reply to
Generic Male Homosapien

I am sure I recall seeing some CF lamps marked as being for base-up use only. Perhaps not all are.

-=- Alan

On 11/06/03 02:52 am Generic Male Homosapien put fingers to keyboard and launched the following message into cyberspace:

Reply to
Alan Beagley

Yep. And I was just relaying my results from using identical bulbs in 2 different situations. I've heard others talk of the same problem, so I know it wasn't a fluke.

Incandesants are passive devices, a piece of wire in a glass holder. Compact flourescents have active electronics housed in the base, they are subject to damage by heat.

FYI, the porcelain fixture that toasted 3 for me, I had it on 24/7 in a semi-heated basement, so it never cooled down like one you use occasionally.

Reply to
I-zheet M'drurz

Everything i've read about CF bulbs says that they can be used in any orientation. Though I'm willing to believe that there are some out that i've never heard of which need to be mounted in a particular direction.

i've had CF bulbs in porcelain fixtures in my basement, upside down, for a couple years with no problem. They're not on 24/7.

Kevin

Reply to
kevins_news

Incandescent bulbs will get MUCH hotter but they are also very tolerant of heat. The ballast of a CF has electronics that can be damaged by heat. It will shorten the life of the bulb. So while a CF is much cooler, put a couple of them in an enclosed fixture and they'll generate enough heat (still less heat than an incandescent by its self) to damage the electronics.

Kevin

Reply to
kevins_news

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