On Fri, 25 Jan 2013 22:37:44 +0000 (UTC), Joe Mastroianni
wrote:

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.

And you know what ASS U ME does - - -

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).

What happens depends on the construction of the lamp.

The brass socket style have craft paper type insulator between the
brass shell and the internal socket. Overheat and it burns. Usually no
fire - but now there is no electrical insulation - and the brass,
having been overheated, looses it's temper - gets soft - and now the
pressed together shell gets loose, and it is easily knocked apert - so
the shell now shorts to the exposed terminal on the socket - and the
lamp becomes "live"

If it is an open lamp, that's generally the extent of the damage -
untill someone touches it and gets a (possibly serious) shock.

If the lamp is an enclosed fixture, snug to the ceiling or wall, the
insulation in the fixture breakes down - the insulation in the socket
- if brass- deteriorates as above, with the same result - except it
can short to ground - possibly blowing the fuse - possibly
establishing an arc which can ignite anything flamable - including,
possibly, the wire insulation in the box.

The high heat can also melt or warp plastic shades and difusers - and
depending on the design, the plastic can contact the hot bulb -
causing either fire or toxic smoke.

In a best case scenario, the overheated socket simply looses contact
pressure on the center contact, causing the lamp to flicker or not
work. The high resistance connection - if left powered on for too
long, can severely overheat and, again, POSSIBLY cause a fire or
damage to house wiring in the box.

At the very least - the socket/fixture itself is damaged and requires
replacement.

Replacing with a ceramic (not plastic) socket can REDUCE some of the
problems, again depending on the fixture design.

GENERALLY ceramic sockets are rated higher than brass (or steel) and
ALWAYS higher than plastic (which should really be outlawed).
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.