A couple days ago I a pack of 3 GE energy smart bulbs. These things have mercury in them, and they give off a somewhat acrid odor when lit.
Anybody else experineced or heard about this and whether it's a matter for consern?
Thanks
There are things that could smell bad besides the mercury. Maybe a web search on acrid smell mercury would say if it could be the mercury. I sort of doubt it. Maybe the folks in sci.chemistry would know more.
I would return them, If it was mercury the bulb would not light as the gas would have escaped, the glass is sealed. Mercury I dont believe has a smell you would notice. Its the electronics and it will probably fail soon or maybe its residue on the electronics package.
Mercury is odorless. Sniff elsewhere for the problem.
Recently, as I reached up to install a similar light one morning, I detected a smell similar to buttercups. Turns out the odor was emanating from a lump of green clay in my armpit.
That odor is called "the essence of ohms". It comes from electronic components overheating, not mercury which is inside the glass tube.
Jimmie
I would not be concerned unless odor did not go away and annoyed you. Then you take them back. Could be a finish, label or contaminate on exterior of bulb that is pyrolizing off. I would not worry about the mercury as even if it were a contaminate, there would not be enough heat to vaporize it.
Definitely NOT the mercury. If you could smell the mercury the bulb would not light - the mercury is very well sealed into the glass tube.
Are you familiar with the smell of ozone? It sounds like your lamps might be producing a tad too much UV and it's interacting with oxygen in the air to make a little ozone.
Dream on, UV, Ozone, if it was so it would be a known issue as O3 is a poison
You could be detecting the oder of some plasticizers used in the plastic components that is released when the light warms up.
Is it related to the magic smoke that all electrical/electronic devices operate on?
TDD
Often the precursor to the magic smoke in my experience.
Get lots of the other bulbs, they are going to be illegal in a couple of years.
At my place of work here in Germany, we've had three very cheap energy saving bulbs in a lamp for months, and boy, every time these bulbs have been burning for more than a fe minutes, I, as well as a few coworkers with sensitive noses, can smell a kind of "chemical" odor when standing close to them.
It's probably whatever kind of chemical was used on the little circuit boards embedded in these bulbs.
On the other hand, I've had a more expensive brand of such bulbs in use here at home, and they do not only produce a more friendly light, but they are also completely "oderless".
Greetings, Nils
The ozone-producing wavelength of mercury is 184.9 nm. The glass bulb blocks that wavelength bigtime, should any of it fail to be absorbed by the phosphor.
As for mercury - I have had experience with it, and did not notice any odor.
The odor sounds to me like a by-product of manufacturing either the plastic ballast housing or the circuit board. It may be an incompletely polymerized plastic ingredient or it may be a cleaning agent.
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