CFL on steroids any risk?

I got a grab bag of CFLs cheap at a thrift store, and one of them is a Maxlite 32W that looks like this:

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although it doesn't say growlight, but I don't know why else you would have one. I've never seen a super CFL that size.

Is there any risk to running one of these in a basement ceiling fixture?

During the winter I do my morning wakeup under bright light, this kind of lamp might be easier than my current setup. But not if it's going to explode or break during use.

Reply to
Tim R
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So you have a non-growing use for it, but no-one else has?

nothing beyond the usual minor risks of lamps.

why do you think it would it explode? Seems an odd idea. Break...all lamps do if whacked.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

CFLs do not last long when inverted, other than that I would assume it is OK if made with the usual UL/CSA requirements...

Mind you this is from Amazon and there is no regulation there at all, total Chinese crap (and dangerously so) is my experience in several cases.

John :-#)#

Reply to
John Robertson

I can think of lots of nongrowlight uses for a light that bright, like in a work area, athletics, etc.; just it doesn't seem very "residential" and the other contents of the bag gave clues to the origin.

No, it's just that I've heard of CFLs failing catastrophically, but I've never even seen one this big. The basement ceiling fixture is the simple one socket ceramic plate, no globe or shield, so it will mount base up.

Reply to
Tim R

Well I use lots of lighting watts now & then in a residential setting, and there's no lack of other people that do too.

that won't help it last.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

On Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 7:25:11 PM UTC-4, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote: The basement ceiling fixture is the simple one socket ceramic plate, no glo be or shield, so it will mount base up.

So it should really be used base down?

It occurs to me that the majority of the light may be emitted sideways, but if I mount it sideways then half the light goes up. (I teach handbell rin ging, and the sound comes off the sides of the bell, with very little comin g from the end, so I coach my ringers in holding the bell so the sound reac hes the audience.)

Reply to
Tim R

lobe or shield, so it will mount base up.

yup. Not sure about sideways.

ut if I mount it sideways then half the light goes up. (I teach handbell r inging, and the sound comes off the sides of the bell, with very little com ing from the end, so I coach my ringers in holding the bell so the sound re aches the audience.)

Yes, more sideways than end on. In practice it doesn't seem to create probl ems though. LEDs are more directional.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

I don't care what you grow, bottom line is that if you give it the voltage it wants it should be safe. If it is a bad design then I can't say.

Actually, anyone out there interested in growing smoke - it is almost not w orth it now. It is legal to grow in many places now and that means those pe ople will not be buying. Plus now they got vapes and those are efficient an d not that easy to make, and they will win a good piece of the market.

I tried it back when it was worth it and all I got out of it was junk and a lmost ten grand in utility bills. We didn't really have LEDS or CCFLs then , I had sodium and nickel hydrydes, 1,200 watts of them and then about 20,

000 BTU to cool the whole mess down.

I could heaver done much better things with that money.

One of the things with LED and CCFL is that I am concerned about their spec tral output. You need UV and all that, and that also may include people. So me people just don't like florescent tubes, old tubes were phosphors, so ar e CCFLs and the newer LEDs. (that's why the can use them to backlight an LC D screen now)

Some people just really like incandescents.

Reply to
Jeff Urban

I have a 100 watt equivalent CFL light in a hallway. It's mounted upside-down which is a good way shorten its life. When it blows, I'll replace it with a warm LED light.

You haven't described the fixture. If it's enclosed, particularly in the ceiling, you run the risk of either starting a fire, blowing up the CFL light from overheating, or both. It's strictly a matter of ventilation and heat build up. Buy an IR thermometer and do whatever it takes to keep it cool, including adding a small (quiet) fan.

It probably won't explode, but might get hot enough to set fire to anything nearby that's flammable. I had one CFL lamp on my desk belch fire for about 2 seconds from a small hole in the "ceramic" base. If there had been anything nearby that could burn, it would have started a fire.

If you're into indoor agriculture, I suggest you look into LED grow lights and read something on how they work. [Quiz] Why are plants green, but LED grow lights produce very little green light?

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

CFLs don't explode or start fires. One thing I've encountered are many people who describe events that are obviously not explosions as explosions.

Green plants absorb & use red & blue light. Green light, when growing, is wasted.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

I'm not into indoor gardening and doubt I ever will be - not that many years left to experiment.

In the 70s I did an indoor garden for a season. It did very well with four foot fluourescents, the standard T12 that was in use back then. I think I used six tubes, four cool white and two warm white, for the balance.

I've read about LED grow lights and it all looked like advertising hype with no science behind it. Perhaps there have been some advances. I've been told the illegal growers mostly used metal halide fixtures, not something I'd want in my house.

Reply to
Tim R

I had a CFL start on fire. It was mounted base up in a can fixture. Luckily I was in the room at the time, or it might have taken down the entire house.

Reply to
Terry Schwartz

Not a problem if you don't inhale.

At the time, the authorities were monitoring household electric bills. Any sudden and stable rise in consumption implied that the household was using artificial lighting to grow something.

Is NASA a sufficiently credible source? "Sole-Source Lighting for Controlled-Environment Agriculture" There's been quite a bit of research on agriculture in space and in non-solar environments.

Try searching Google Scholar for research reports: For example:

It's now legal to grow marijuana in California. Much of the indoor and underground farms have moved outdoors.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Close enough but not quite complete. We see objects by the wavelengths (colors) the object does NOT absorb, but does reflect. Plants are generally green and therefore do NOT absorb green wavelengths. Therefore, wasting power generating light in the green part of the spectrum is largely wasted on plants.

Or so I thought. "Sole-Source Lighting for Controlled-Environment Agriculture" From a summary of the above article, it seems that plants do find a little green light useful: Green Light (500 - 600 nm) was once thought not to be necessary for plants, but recent studies have discovered this wavelength penetrates through thick top canopies to support the leaves in the lower canopy.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Thanks for the links, and the google scholar reference.

Interesting stuff.

I guess I probably can't buy high powered blue and red LED lamps at Home De pot. I guess I could test a high watt LED bulb over a plant some time, som ething legal of course.

I'm no longer worried about my super CFL exploding. I got my thermometer o ut to test it, and................it didn't work. The bulb I mean. The ot her lamps in the bag work okay, so I didn't get totally taken, but I was lo oking forward to seeing a miniature sun in my basement.

Reply to
Tim R

Now the technique is to fly over with IR imagine camera, and see hot lofts.

AIUI LP sodium are still more efficient, but not spectrally complete, so not suitable as the sole light source.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

If you're growing at home, the green is nearly all wasted as little gets absorbed. It therefore doesn't make sense to produce it - subject to an assortment of conditions, eg if you want white light for other reasons.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Some basics:

a) ALL LED lamps should be used base-down unless otherwise marked. Yes, the re are LED lamps designed for horizontal, vertical, base-up and base-down a pplications. But if UNMARKED, base-down only. b) The driver (what is in the base) emits heat. Approximately 80% of all th e heat generated by the lamp. The other 20% is spread throughout the emitte rs and in terms of 'feel' will be negligible. c) Keep in mind that an LED lamp, on average, makes about 150 - 200 lumens per watt. Let's use 200 for this discussion. d) This lamp will make very roughly 6,400 lumens, and about 26 watts in hea t at the base. Note that the 10,000 lumens advertised is what is known in t he industry as "Flash" lumens - the first 3 seconds that power is applied t o the LEDs for the first time - and then only. e) A typical incandescent lamp produces about 17 lumens per watt these days . But heat is emitted across the entire envelope, not concentrated in the b ase as with CFL or LED lamps. f) Hence, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and children of all ages - BASE DOWN unless marked otherwise. AND!!! the lamp base rating should be o bserved as compared to actual light delivered. g) Meaning - if a base is rated for "60 watts", an ~1.100-lumen lamp should be pretty much the limit of what is installed in it, whether incandescent, CFL or LED.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Reply to
peterwieck33

absorbed. It therefore doesn't make sense to produce it - subject to an ass ortment of conditions, eg if you want white light for other reasons.

LED lamps these days may be controlled for spectrum to a remarkably fine de gree. I work in, but not for, a hospital, and we, as the landlord are relam ping approximately 1,000,000 s.f. of space including everything from ORs th rough research labs to animal, bacterial and plant facilities. You may bet, very safely, that in many of the labs and procedure rooms, CRI, Kelvin and Color are critical at many levels.

Yet, we are using perhaps two different basic lamps throughout with CRI, Ke lvin & Color being controlled primarily via the drivers, not the emitters. Not the Kelvin and Color are very nearly, but not quite the same thing - an d the critical parameter is CRI (Color Rendering Index).

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Reply to
peterwieck33

And sometimes you can discover the same with just some basic observational skills:

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Reply to
John-Del

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