Friday, February 11, 2011

CAUTION

A few weeks ago I received a disturbing email about a CFL bulb, this is the first time I have heard of this happening with a bulb. Below the letter from my customer is a response I got from my light bulb Representative after I forwarded him this letter.
You can be sure that the TCP bulbs we sale will not have this problem. I want you all to be aware of this and I hope no one has this same thing happen to them.




Below is a picture of a CFL light bulb from my bathroom. I turned it on the other day and then smelled smoke after a few minutes. Four inch flames were spewing out of the side of the ballast like a blow torch! I immediately turned off the lights. But I'm sure it would have caused a fire if I was not right there. Imagine if the kids had left the lights on as usual when they were not in the room.
I took the bulb to the Fire Department to report the incident. The Fireman wasn't at all surprised and said that it was not an uncommon occurrence. Apparently, sometimes when the bulb burns out there is a chance that the ballast can start a fire. He told me that the Fire Marshall had issued reports about the dangers of these bulbs.

Upon doing some Internet research, it seems that bulbs made by “Globe” in China seem to have the lion’s share of problems. Lots of fires have been blamed on misuse of CFL bulbs, like using them in recessed lighting, pot lights, dimmers or in track lighting. Mine was installed in a normal light socket.

I bought these at Wal-Mart. I will be removing all the Globe bulbs from my house. CFL bulbs are a great energy saver but make sure you buy a name brand like Sylvania , Phillips or GE and not the ones from China .
RESPONSE:
we incorporated end of life circuit protection in all of our 489 series lamps. You pay more for them, but this will never happen with a TCP pro series lamp. And we are the only company that offers this feature at this time.
PS- Some Sylvania and Philips lamps are made by.....TCP. So much for household names.

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