I've had 2 of these POS CFL bulbs catch fire. Both were less than 3 months old. Luckily, I was home both times or who knows what would have happened.

Apparently, I'm not alone. I did some searching and found this interesting 'warning' from the Ontario Safety Authority. It basically says, "yes, these bulbs do catch fire, melt, and emit smoke but don't worry ... we're not aware of any houses burning down as a result. Yet. " :rolleyes::rolleyes:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/03/21/florescent-bulbs.html

Mine looked just like the foto in the link: the plastic was melted, charred and smoking and stunk the entire house up!

Here's a better foto of how these fail. I'm not aware of another consumer product that is designed to char, melt and emit smoke! Check your CFL's - I'll bet you find some with 'browning' of the white plastic base ....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1202000993.jpg

Here's all the parts that can fail on a CFL.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1202001363.jpg

Another Rube Goldberg device, much like Hybrid cars ....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1202001555.jpg

I use 150w to 300w for most lighting. To bad compact stuff dosen't come in that brightness not to mention spectrum. My personal cure. I am stocking up on incandescents. I will have enough to last 2 lifetimes and enough to sell on black market when the time comes to buy a couple of Porsche GTs. I like big. Carbon footprints whatever.

Thanks for the link Curt. Scary. Hopefully a nice assortment of replacement LED's will be on the market soon, but then again those last too long for manufacturers to sell.

I tried to Google an efficiency comparison chart of amps->lumens between incandescent/CFL/&LED's, but there wasen't one to be found on the first couple pages. I think I remember incandescents turned something like 70% of energy consumed directly into heat, while LEDs only turned around 10-15% into heat. Something like that.

I really think LED is the long-term answer. My brother is involved in a project with MDOT who are replacing all of their highway sign lighting with LED. The result has been very good so far.

The LED alternatives that are currently available are not practical for home lighting. One 75 watt equivalent is very expensive compared to incandescent or fluorescent. The light is also very harsh as mentioned above.

BTW, 150 watt equivalents are available in CFL. I have them in my garage and they are quite bright.....but also pretty large.

LED lighting technology is advancing rapidly. Right now a 10W LED has equivalent lumens to a 100W incandescent. They are expensive, but they have a 60,000 hour life cycle.

Look at the simplicity of LED technology vs. the Rube Goldberg CFL:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1202058882.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1202058896.jpg

Getting back to the original issue - the government should not be dictating what type of light bulbs we should be buying. Period. :rolleyes: