Fluorescent fixture fire « on: January 05, 2021, 02:54:22 AM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Does anyone know what might cause fluorescent fixtures like this to catch fire? Here is the video: https://youtu.be/Clpc3REUgps
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Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

	Re: Fluorescent fixture fire « Reply #1 on: January 05, 2021, 03:26:54 AM » Author: BG101
Shorted turns in a pitch-filled ballast? Talking of turns, why can't people be bothered to turn their cameras the right way when filming video. Missed ¾ of the scene due to this muppetry.
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	Re: Fluorescent fixture fire « Reply #2 on: January 05, 2021, 04:01:31 AM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Does anyone also know about the cause of the fluorescent fixture fire at the Bronycon My Little Pony convention in 2011? Here is the video: https://youtu.be/mN9075mbEr0
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Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

	Re: Fluorescent fixture fire « Reply #6 on: January 05, 2021, 08:44:13 PM » Author: xmaslightguy
That 1st vid looks like it was taken in a school gym... I wouldn't be surprised if a ball hit the light, knocking a tube partially loose causing it to arc on the end where the fire started. ==================== Quote why can't people be bothered to turn their cameras the right way when filming video Ug. I know! Worse than that is news stations if they use a vertically recorded vid like that...instead of leaving blank/black space on the sides, they fill them with a blurred-out version of the video. That looks horrible, far worse than leaving it blank. :roll:
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	Re: Fluorescent fixture fire « Reply #7 on: January 23, 2021, 06:36:39 PM » Author: BG101
Quote from: xmaslightguy on January 05, 2021, 08:44:13 PM Ug. I know! Worse than that is news stations if they use a vertically recorded vid like that...instead of leaving blank/black space on the sides, they fill them with a blurred-out version of the video. That looks horrible, far worse than leaving it blank. :roll: I totally agree. The broadcasters should either crop the video to fill as much of the screen as possible or better still, simply just reject them altogether as that's the only way some people will learn, stating that these are not compatible with broadcast television standards. Actually, on one of the recent BBC local news bulletins, they actually asked people to only send in LANDSCAPE videos, which IMHO is about bloody time. It really needed to be said, unfortunately. Those blur-blinkers™ are nauseating, migraine-inducing and I suspect can cause epilectic seizures for vulnerable people especially when the cell phone is being shaken about (which it usually is). They remind me of my hill-walking days where, on a narrow path, no matter how much you try to concentrate on the path itself, the peripheral view down the slopes on either side was giddying. It's not like we can turn our televisions over to "the other side" as we used to call it back in the days of 2 channels on 405 lines, but in this case literally, even if we wanted to. I apologize for the off-topic rant.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2021, 06:39:32 PM by BG101 »		Logged

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	Re: Fluorescent fixture fire « Reply #8 on: January 24, 2021, 02:11:23 AM » Author: dor123
The uploader used a smartphone camera to capture, which is the result of this. The fire don't looks to me like the ballast, because of the location of the fire in the fixture, which is in the lampholder. Probably the lampholder catch fire because there was arcing between the lamp and the lampholder and these are slimline fixtures, which more prone to fire than rapid-start or preheat.
« Last Edit: January 24, 2021, 02:13:43 AM by dor123 »		Logged

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Please forgive me if my choice of my words looks like offensive, while that isn't my intention.

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	Re: Fluorescent fixture fire « Reply #10 on: January 24, 2021, 03:01:28 AM » Author: dor123
After all, there is no much different between slimline and instant start T8: Both provides HV and connects one wire to each end of the lamp. The only difference is that slimline tubes are T12 with a single pin and the ballast is magnetic and T8 have two pins and the ballast is electronic.
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I"m don't speak English well, and rely on online translating to write in this site.
Please forgive me if my choice of my words looks like offensive, while that isn't my intention.

I only working with the international date format (dd.mm.yyyy).

I lives in Israel, which is a 220-240V, 50hz country.

	Re: Fluorescent fixture fire « Reply #11 on: January 24, 2021, 03:58:29 PM » Author: BG101
One would think that fire-retardant materials would be used for the lampholders (actually, the complete fitting, ideally). When I was studying at college, there were many old fittings still in use, including 5ft 80W ones. The lampholders got baked over time (especially with the 80W fittings) and the connectors ended up arcing then going O/C but no fires to my knowledge. I guess in some cases that fitting 80W T12 fittings with 58W T8s (which I've seen on a few too many occasions) exacerbated the problem as these run well above their rating when tortured in this way & get rather hot. I guess the high OCV on the firelights fixtures shown here, along with carbonization of the lampholder body, contributed to this. The only instant-start fittings I know of in this country (England) are the single-pin ones with the starter strip, used in petrol pumps (there was also a 2ft fitting above the entrance to the MrKiesa* nightclub, under the balcony of the Haymarket in the city centre but I never saw it lit), and the 5- or 6-foot ones used to illuminate blackboards when I was in high school in the 1980s (which used regular T12 bi-pin tubes). The latter seemed to stop striking the lamp with only minimal wear. *Not 100% sure if I got the name quite right, it's been gone for years now.
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	Re: Fluorescent fixture fire « Reply #12 on: January 24, 2021, 09:07:29 PM » Author: xmaslightguy
Somewhere down in the comments below that vid, it did say the fixture was indeed hit by a ball which is what caused this to happen. I would assume a ballast with EOL protection would have detected a problem and shut down? (I might have to test sometime & see if arcing will trigger it...)
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	Re: Fluorescent fixture fire « Reply #14 on: June 18, 2021, 09:51:25 AM » Author: dor123
This can only occur with electronic instant start ballast used for bi-pin lamps. There was an arcing in the lampholder, which is ballasted by the ballast, causing fire.
« Last Edit: June 18, 2021, 09:54:23 AM by dor123 »		Logged

I"m don't speak English well, and rely on online translating to write in this site.
Please forgive me if my choice of my words looks like offensive, while that isn't my intention.

I only working with the international date format (dd.mm.yyyy).

I lives in Israel, which is a 220-240V, 50hz country.