We went away for the weekend and usually leave the bathroom light on for our children as they can't reach the ceiling light (small fluorescent light with switch).
In the morning my husband noticed the light had melted and promptly turned off the power. When he disconnected the light, it had melted the clear plastic cover and the main housing which had turned dark brown. Luckily the ceiling was unaffected.
I'm freaking out about what could have been. Have you heard of this before? Any advice would be appreciated.
faulty light sounds like,you were lucky if it melted.
check fuses are correct rating.these lights are 12 volt but contain a booster to about 130 volts to light the tube.
Greetings,
When you get the housing for the light changed could I suggest that instead of using a halogen bulb (which get remarkably hot) you consider changing the bulb to an LED type.
These produce no heat at all and are therefore ideal for the situation you want to use it for ie switched on for several hours.
There is a bonus in that the LED bulbs use far less electricity as well and are better for when you are off EHU.
------------- How come when some people visit the fountain of knowledge, they only gargle!!!
if its one of the small strip lights, with fluorescent tube, type, then yes the lights function using electronic circuits to "fire" electrons through the tube,
these circuit boards can "and quite often do" overheat, as can any electrical apparatus.
you mention the fault turned off the power, is it a 230v fitting or a 12v fitting
230v trips power at breakers,
12v would blow the fuses
quite unusual to actually melt a fitting ,unless it is a "bulb" type fitting
more info would be required,
i.e.
make and model of van if its a manufacturers fitting
year of van
better description of the actual light
stu
I've read of similar when the lamps are on for such a long period of time. You'd expect them to be capable of running, but in reality this isn't that un-common. I wonder if there's chance an over-rated bulb has been fitted as per Jeff's thoughts, but could also be due to moisture causing minor corrosion on bulb terminals, which can then induce additional heat during operation.
I like Emmitdb's suggestion of considering an LED replacement too.
Flourescent lights have a component in them called a choke. Under normal use these get quite hot and can eventually burn out. Another thing to consider is that a lot of the smaller florescent fittings are not designed to be left on for hour after hour and when they are left on the chokes can get very hot. Flourescent tubes as they age also start to burn close to the end caps and can overheat and melt the plastic difusers.
Thank you all. I'm so thankful that it wasn't worse. Very important lesson learned. My husband threw away the bulb so it may have been the wrong rating.
We're going to have it serviced and the girls can use torches from now on.
You can get those stick on lights that operate on batteries very cheaply, you could put one just at their height, then you wouldn't have to leave the light on when it's fixed. like these:
the floursecent tubes in those lamps cannot be the wrong rating.
The other tubes are physically different sizes, these take a 12" 8W T5 tube, the closest there is is a 8W t4, which is actually longer.
more likely the choke has died of old age, unusual for them to get that hot before the cut out, or create a short blowing the fuse, so I would suggest checking your fuse ratings.
I was worried about leaving our lights on formthe granchildren so I use theunder cupboard stick on lights, just leave it switched on by the side of the sink
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Topic: Bathroom light melted
