"Fake ID" wrote in message
...
Lights of America, 32W base up in a desk lamp.

I heard a pop and found the two parts of that form the base separated
with the bulb dangling from a pair of internal wires, and a scorch mark
on the shade. Near the edge of the circuit board there is a DIP with
pin 6 completely gone--just a hole surrounded by black emanating to the
edge of the board. Another nearby component (whose type escapes me
94-4944 042P 2671) has scorch marks on its heat sink and a little bump
poking out of the packaging.

m

It's not uncommon. From your description, it sounds like a capacitor
failure on the ballast circuit board. It's scary because you can see the
damage and sometimes smell a bit of smoke and see the flash. All electronic
fluorescent lamp ballasts have capacitors. Now, with the circuitry almost
exposed on CFL lamps, failures are noticed. When the ballast is inside a
metal can inside an enclosed fixture, there isn't as much of a "show" when
something fails.

If the CFL is UL listed (most are), the design has been tested so that it is
not likely it will start a fire or be an electrical safety hazard; but with
electricity anything can happen sometimes. Flick a drop of water on a
standard 100 watt incandescent bulb that's been burning a while and be
prepared for fireworks and flying glass. On second thought, don't do that;
it's dangerous. And standard light bulbs are not UL listed for safety.

Tomsic