# Burning Down the House



## thestelster (Feb 4, 2022)

In my 20'x20' garage, where I have all my machines, I originally installed 14 fluorescent light fixtures, that's a total of 28 T8 32watt tubes.  It's bright to say the least.  Over the course of 5 or 6 years, a tube would burn out, or dim, and then another one, and another.  You don't notice it too much, especially since I have flexible lights at the different machines.  Well today I decided to change the burnt out and dimming lights.  10 new lights!!  What a difference!!  So I'm installing them, easy enough, but not using a ladder, which I have two in the garage, but just standing on a chair, and reaching, stretching. I'm thinking I should have pulled out the ladder.  I'm almost finished installing the last couple tubes, and then I start to smell burning plastic.  What the hell?!  I'm looking around, and I see one of the fixtures smoking.  I quickly jumped on the chair and took out the tube.  I obviously didn't twist in the prongs properly.  Moral of the story, don't take short cuts.  Use the ladder, put on safety glasses, use gloves.  I can only imagine if it had happened on the last bulb, and I went in the house for something.


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## kevin.decelles (Feb 5, 2022)

I had a similar experience with a fluorescent fixture, but it was the ballast that super heated hot enough to burn the joist underneath of it.  Smelled burned wood for a couple of weeks before I could find it, was invisible because the fixture hid the burn......  I've replaced all my tubes with LED in my house/shop(s) now..... no regrets, and 60% less power consumption.

Electrical fires scare me.


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## Aliva (Feb 5, 2022)

That's why I changed my fluorescent's to corn cob LED's


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