Compact Florescent Light Bulbs Gone Wild!

My daughter went into our computer room last night and the only CFL bulb remaining in our home was spitting out flames. The smell in the air was horrible! I had a hard time breathing all night after this. By the time I took this video the bulb was winding down. I think this video speaks for itself. These bulbs are not only combusting mercury in your home, they are also a fire hazard. 5 milligrams of mercury is in each bulb. This does not sound like much but consider this. That amount makes 6,000 gallons of water undrinkable.

reply to post by nkultra


I'm totally speechless. Thank you.

Inhaling mercury is actually worse than ingesting it. I don't think, in this case, you were breathing in mercury fumes per se, likely what you smelled was "burnt" electricity, but still I don't like these bulbs.
Why can't we just have wind/solar/tidal energy, or some good old fashioned Tesla "energy from the air tech", so we don't have to worry about "energy costs", and then we can get back to our old school, cleaner burning bulbs?

reply to post by nkultra


I never liked these light bulbs. Theres also reports of CFL bulbs causing skin rashes, headaches, and eye irritation. CFL light bulbs emit higher ultraviolet light than regular bulbs do.

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part 2

reply to post by nkultra


Nothing like a good old light bulb. take a 40W incandescent bulb and voila let there be light

seriously though, have you noticed that the old bulbs are a little tricky to find in stores? They are harmless (unless you unscrew one after it just burnt, then ouch). No high frequencies, No mercury, no fuss starting up, no fire hazard... no problem...

go back to regular bulbs

Well, in that particular video example, it was the power supply that erupted, and it seems that the lamp did not break, which means it contained the gas. When you unscrewed it, did it break or fall apart?

Unless I'm missing some serious logic here, why the hell aren't we all upgrading to LED light bulbs? they now have 15W LED light bulbs for domestic use to light rooms. I'd imagine their lifespan would be similar to that of the good old led lights still working on your 386 pc's etc.. (in excess of 20 years) and they wouldn't have any dangerous chemicals to emit into the breathable air or fire hazards etc..

I plan to upgrade to these types of lighting ASAP.

www.ledcentral.com.au...

Watch this video..

a real eye opener.....

Don't you just love it when the solution to a problem is actually worse than the original problem?

double post - computer acting up.

Lj01 does not have a problem with the bulbs..........

I prefer not to change bulbs that often and I like it when I cannot remember the last time I changed it.

Maybe the CFL is not for you.......turning of and on often is not good for CFL's......

The lifetime of any lamp depends on many factors, including operating voltage, manufacturing defects, exposure to voltage spikes, mechanical shock, frequency of cycling on and off, lamp orientation, and ambient operating temperature, among other factors. The life of a CFL is significantly shorter if it is turned on and off frequently. In the case of a 5-minute on/off cycle the lifespan of a CFL can be reduced to "close to that of incandescent light bulbs".[14] The U.S. Energy Star program suggests that fluorescent lamps be left on when leaving a room for less than 15 minutes to mitigate this problem.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_flourescent

From the looks of the video your house is kind of old, possibly with old wiring................

I know this from personal experience......The one in my bedroom blows out faster than the rest of them......The wiring in this old house is horrible and sometimes it flickers a little........

The smell was the electronic ballast overheating and almost catching fire, or did.............You are lucky your house is not burnt down.....

I would probably check on your wiring in the house.............

My name is LJ01 and I approve of this message

I can't wait to see how much pollution there will be after 20 years worth of these things filling up our landfills.

Mercury seeping into the ground water???

How many housholds in America?
How many bulbs in each house?
How many bulbs get thrown out per household per year?
x 20 years.

yup.
ought to be interesting.

I have had nothing but problems from mercury vapour type globes.

The bases disintegrate after a few hundred hours of use and the circuit boards within the base leak electrolyte from the capacitors in the same time frame. The bulbs can't be recycled cheaply and create a toxic nightmare at rubbish tips.

I implore everyone to stop using these toxic time-bombs. If you can't buy regular argon filled incandescent globes, get halogen globes. They are available in the same size/shapes as the old incandescent though are priced slightly higher.

Just for the record .....Incandescent light globes;

Can be easily recycled.
Contain a gas that is commonly found in the atmosphere....argon, so breakage isn't an issue beyond a small pile of broken glass.
Don't require inverting & rectifying circuits to operate......Less production costs and less energy wasted in component manufacture.


Just like in Africa, the greenies have stepped in an ruined it for everyone else. Their feel-good ideologies do nothing for the environment and impede legitimate attempts at solving real world problems. E.G. Drought management.

Every time I hear someone fighting for the "Planet" or the "Environment" and start telling the people how "it should be done", how "they know exactly what the problem is" and only they know "how to fix it", I .......

*Facepalm

reply to post by liejunkie01


Thats all great, but they have now made the old bulbs unavailable.

Yep, I had the same thing happen, new house, new wiring, new bulb.

Hello, can we say Georgia Guidstones?

Question...
Why did you not turn off light switch right away?

Scary stuff. Thanks for sharing most disconcerting.

reply to post by baddmove



Excellent video cheers for the embed. Truly a troubling situation.

reply to post by zorgon


how you gonna film it on fire if you turn off the switch..

seriously...good question...

OMG!
it sounds like a demon!
I am geting old and I can not see with them.

bring back the good old 100W bulb.
why do they wont to save elect?
look at ALL the othere stuff?
1000W microwaves.

I think florescent lights will eventually be replaced with LED bulbs. They would take a fraction of the energy needed for an incandescent bulb and a florescent bulbs. They would also be much safer. Until the cost of LED's come down in price, florescent bulbs will unfortunately be the norm.

I had to turn it back on to film it.