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Doug Miller[_4_] Doug Miller[_4_] is offline
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Default What happens if you put 75 watt bulb in a 60 watt fixture

Joe Mastroianni wrote in :

I have a desk lamp of the "brave little toaster" style which says to use
a 60W bulb.

Inside the light, it 'says' 60 watts.
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/...g/12036539.jpg

My wife insists on a 75 Watt flood, which gives the right amount of
light, but it gets hot as blazes.

How much do you think 125% over the maximum matters?


A lot. When we bought our current home, I had to replace all of the light fixtures in the kitchen
because the previous owners had done exactly that: put 75W bulbs in fixtures that were
labeled "60W max". When I took the fixtures down to paint the ceiling, I discovered that the
excess heat had made the insulation on the fixture wires brittle and hard to the point of
cracking and falling off of the conductors. One fixture had an inch and a half of uninsulated
wire.