"Joe Mastroianni" wrote in message
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On Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:51:27 -0500, Dan Espen wrote:

Nothing to worry about except the fire then...

I personally doubt it will cause a fire - but I must say that I'm not
sure (which is why I asked).

Nobody cited anything specific - and - well I guess the onus is on me to
figure out what the ratings actually mean.

I presume (but this is an assumption), that a 60 Watt rating means it can
handle at least double that forever - but I am clear that this is just an
assumption.

I hear all the houses-burning-down scare stories - and I don't deny that
(because I don't know) but without any facts to back them up - that
assumption is based on similar logic to mine (i.e., wild eyed guesses).

Of course, the house-burning-down is a MUCH SAFER assumption - so I'm not
poo pooing it - I'm just saying that nobody who said the house would burn
down has shown any proof of it actually happening even once. Of course,
with 150 million homes (or so) in the US, I'm sure houses burn down from
all sorts of things - but I can say I've got a handful of these lamps,
all running the 75 Watt Halogen Par-something bulb - and the only thing I
see so far is that they do get rather hot.

Anyway - I'll stick to the rating being half the actual limit until/
unless someone shows proof otherwise. BTW, I don't disagree with the
statement that the thing will slowly deteriorate with higher heat - but
again, nobody showed proof so that's just an assumption also.

Still - it was a good idea to change out the plastic socket for ceramic
and to move the switch to the cord - so these I will explore.

Before you adopt your made-up "half the actual limit" idea, why don't you
read the UL Standard on the subject which details the test procedures and
assumptions that UL uses. It's UL Standard 8750 and applies to
permanently-mounted light fixtures. Any electrical inspector will have a
copy or you can buy it from UL or CSA since it's harmonized with Canada too.

Tomsic