Not sure what happened here. Recently installed 3, 8' H0 two lamp 110w t-12 fixtures that I bought from Menards. Cheap ones at like $50.00 each without bulbs. The only model they had that was meant for flush mount in lieu of a chain mount.
Did it right I think. 20 amp isolated breaker, 12 g wire, 20 amp switch. The whole nine yards in EMT. The entire max draw is about a 1000 watts including 5 standard 75 watt lights that run conventional light bulbs.
The install went fine and everything worked as it should. No flickering, no buzzing. All was well until last night
I was hanging out in the garage and had a fire going. About 3 hrs into the evening one of the bulbs literally fell out of the fixture. Luckily it didn't hit anyone and the bulb was incased in a clear protective tube. As you can imagine, it made quite a noise and the bulb shattered.
Before it fell out, I heard a buzzing noise for about 3 seconds. Giving the fixture a quick look I see one of the spring loaded sockets is severely melted.
Shut down the power to these lights and pulled the other bulb. Haven't had a chance to look under the fixture covers yet.
Not sure ill find anything obvious. Couple things I did notice. Not sure its a coincidence or not but this light is the closest to my fireplace in the garage and would be subject to some rapid expansion of the fixture. At this same location the rafters are not quite level at the ceiling (which is covered in steel sheet) and perhaps the fixture is bowed somewhat causing perhaps not a perfect bulb alignment with the fixture housing
Maybe these inexpensive lights from Menards are faulty.
Guess I wont know until I get up there and look at it. Not sure what it is I will be looking for. Could be lots of things I guess. Bare hot wire hitting the fixture. Who knows.
Did it right I think. 20 amp isolated breaker, 12 g wire, 20 amp switch. The whole nine yards in EMT. The entire max draw is about a 1000 watts including 5 standard 75 watt lights that run conventional light bulbs.
The install went fine and everything worked as it should. No flickering, no buzzing. All was well until last night
I was hanging out in the garage and had a fire going. About 3 hrs into the evening one of the bulbs literally fell out of the fixture. Luckily it didn't hit anyone and the bulb was incased in a clear protective tube. As you can imagine, it made quite a noise and the bulb shattered.
Before it fell out, I heard a buzzing noise for about 3 seconds. Giving the fixture a quick look I see one of the spring loaded sockets is severely melted.
Shut down the power to these lights and pulled the other bulb. Haven't had a chance to look under the fixture covers yet.
Not sure ill find anything obvious. Couple things I did notice. Not sure its a coincidence or not but this light is the closest to my fireplace in the garage and would be subject to some rapid expansion of the fixture. At this same location the rafters are not quite level at the ceiling (which is covered in steel sheet) and perhaps the fixture is bowed somewhat causing perhaps not a perfect bulb alignment with the fixture housing
Maybe these inexpensive lights from Menards are faulty.
Guess I wont know until I get up there and look at it. Not sure what it is I will be looking for. Could be lots of things I guess. Bare hot wire hitting the fixture. Who knows.
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