One thing to be said for incandescent light bulbs ...

[unixronin]

... is that I've never seen one do this.

Update:  I just talked to Sylvania.  In addition to replacing this lamp and the one other failed CFL we have (a 40W unit that flickers), they want to see this one for a failure analysis.  I rather expected they would, and I'm glad they didn't disappoint me.

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

All I can tell you is, "It failed", and when I took it out to check it, I found this. Looks like an internal component overheated and subsequently caught fire, exploded, or both. I can't tell any more than that without tearing it apart. I'm guessing Sylvania is going to want to look at this lamp.


The mercury content of CFLs is really no worse than any other fluorescent light. For us, it's not just the energy savings, it's that with current generations of CFLs the light quality is SOOOO much better than incandescents. Incandescent bulbs - particularly US-market ones - have always looked dim and yellowish to me, and they look even more so now that I've gotten used to the "bright white" or daylight bulbs that we use wherever we can. Human eyesight is evolved for daylight, not for 2600K incandescent tungsten.

[tomatoe333.livejournal.com]

Do you have specific brand/types of CFL's that you use? The original CFL's that I bought a bunch of years ago produced TERRIBLE light. I've relegated them to hallway use for the moment.

I also need to do a little research and see if they have CFL's that will reliably fire in a cold (0 degrees fahrenheit) environment. I remember that being a big problem w/ the old ones.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

We've been buying Sylvania (their "bright white" and daylight bulbs only) and Bright Effects.

Relevant to your cold-environment question, we have CFLs in the outside floodlights at the front of the house, and use them mostly in winter (as it's then dark when people are leaving and returning to the house in the mornings and evenings). They do fire in winter conditions, but they need several minutes (instead of 30 seconds or so) to warm up to full output.