Safety of quartz halogen lamp.

[ericmark]

In spite of having a glass between the quartz envelope and the user, to stop UV light and to also stop hot bits of quartz if it shatters from falling on the carpet, the size of the quartz is such that it takes longer to cool than any parts of a old type tungsten lamp, so with a table lamp or standard lamp if they fall over even after the bulb has broken and extinguished it still has very hot parts, and where the quartz envelope is inside a glass envelope the breaking of the glass outer will not cause the filament to rupture and lamp extinguish.

The death of Jake Jackson report does not state if the outer glass broke or not, however two years ago we went to look for new chandelier pair for living room, I was surprised to see fittings with G9 quartz bulbs with no glass globe to contain any hot bits should the bulb shatter.

The problem is LED bulbs will fit the same chandelier so nothing wrong with the fitting, just putting quartz bulbs in the fitting, same with this type

nothing wrong with the bulb, however fitting it in a table or standard lamp if it gets knocked over the outer glass can smash allowing 250°C quartz to touch the shade, and the shades were made for old type bulbs.

 

[JohnW2]

.... nothing wrong with the bulb, however fitting it in a table or standard lamp if it gets knocked over the outer glass can smash allowing 250°C quartz to touch the shade, and the shades were made for old type bulbs.

If you knocked over a pan of hot cooking oil, you'd also have stuff at that sort of temperature flying around. Potential hazards, even though mainly extremely small ones, exist everywhere.

Kind Regards, John

 

[bernardgreen]

Looking some quartz in glass lamps I wonder if the glass sphere is strong enough to contain an exploding quartz capsule.

 

[ericmark]

Looking some quartz in glass lamps I wonder if the glass sphere is strong enough to contain an exploding quartz capsule.

I know at work we had quite a number of quartz tubes explode, the distance lamps to ground mean cool before it landed so no fires, most the lamps were mounted on tower cranes. Not seen one explode in a domestic lamp, however I don't use many quartz lamps at home, however the distance between lamp and floor is small enough that quartz at 250°C could set carpet on fire, and also because of UV output they should have glass to filter out the UV at the distance they are from people in the room.

OK no longer supplied to UK shops, although I suspect a lot in stock, but with the old tungsten bulb even if the bulb glass shattered and I have had this happen, it was that thin by time it hit the floor it was cool, and same for the filament, and if the glass was smashed then the bulb failed, so there was little chance of 250°C bits touching floor or light shade. However the mass of the quartz is a lot more than the glass so it cools slower, and it does not fail unless quartz is broken, if outer glass is broken it continues to work, so when knocked over it does not fail safe.

 

[bernardgreen]

I know from friends of two instances of burn marks floors and one case of a burnt duvet cover, all the result of a hot quartz capsule dropping on to them. I am sure others have not been talked about.

 

[ericmark]

Nothing will happen now, as the ban is already in place due to energy issues, however to produce a bulb that did not fail safe has to be questioned, I have never bought one of the quartz bulbs with a BA22d or E27 base, I went from standard tungsten, to CFL to LED, but at £1 each compared with with £4.5 each for LED I can see why people went for the cheaper option.

I suppose it is down to government for banning the standard tungsten and not the quartz version.

 

[bernardgreen]

Nothing will happen now, as the ban is already in place due to energy issues

It is not impossible that after a few more reported instances some re-thinking might happen.

Writers of regulations see one benefit ( in this case energy reduction ) and are not made aware of the hazards that will come with the imposition of their regulations.