Can I use a 60W LED lightbulb in a 40W lamp?
If you asked the UL listing board of regulators they would most likely say no as the guidelines are strict and they would say use what it says it's rated for. That being said, the ratings usually are rated this way due to heat. If you use a plastic socket and a traditional bulb larger than 60w the chance for heat to be created and melt the socket causing fire was very real. The LED bulbs are rated a bit differently. It says 60w but uses 11w of power to generate the brightness of what an 60w bulb would create. The heat created should not be enough to heat up the socket. I would say yes, it is OK to replace the 40w bulb with a 60w bulb using only 11w.The thing to do it try it and turn it on while you are home and monitor it. Let it burn for a couple hours and check it out every 10 minutes to see if it is smoking or the socket is heating up. If there is no heat you should be fine. Again, as a general rule, go with what the sockets say they are rated for to ensure safety and not cause any electrical fires.
How long do CFL bulbs need to be on to cause a fire?
Your question implies that leaving a compact florescent light on will eventually cause a fire. This is not the case.If you leave a CFL on, it will eventually fail and no longer produce light. Your confusion may come from some some YouTube videos showing CFLs failing. This has ended up producing a wave of rumors spreading across the internet about CFLs being a fire hazard. This is not true.In some rare cases as this video shows, the ballast transformer may short and cause the fuseable link to open. When this happens, a small amount of black smoke will be expelled, out the sides of the bulb base and there might be a pop as the fuse blows. All this happens inside of a fire proof casing. No danger of fire. The video is a bit deceiving as they edited the video to first show the fuse blowing and then replayed it in slow motion, making it seem like a bigger event than it really was.There was a manufacture of bulbs which were not built to meet UL safely requirements that caused two minor fires in 2010. These bulbs were recalled and taken off the market.CFL Bulb Fire RiskTwo minor fires caused by inadequate manufacturing which were recalled seven years ago is not a fire risk. It is an indication that consumer protection agencies are doing a great job.Here is another video from YouTube showing a bulb catching fire. The confusion here is that the person making the video has removed the safety devices and ballast transformer and they try to run the CFL using two high voltage transformers taken from microwave ovens. Even with this, it is not the bulb that fails, but his wiring to the bulb that ends up catching fire.
Can draping material over a lamp cause a fire?
It can be. Use a florseent bulb or a LED bulb. They run cooler. Also keep the fabric covering from touching the bulb, keep 6-8 inches between them. Then try it while you can spent some time in the room and make sure that it does not get warm
Will my LED light strip cause a fire? I'm using a 16' stretch on a cardboard house model and I wrapped some sections in aluminum foil. Do I have any reason to be worried?
Can an LED strip cause a fire? Yes. We almost burned down our first office when one overheated and the pressed cardboard Ikea diffuser to begin smolder. The office got very smokey very quickly. Had we not been present I'm certain that our office would have been destroyed.Don't assume that LEDs /power supplies can't burn you or start fires. Unless your led strip is covered in waterproofing silicone coating or jacket, then I would definitely not recommend using it in conjunction with tin foil. It shorts out easily.Yep, in fact, led strips are definitely the most misunderstood led products out there. And I totally blame the retailers for the complete lack of important information. I could count on one hand the amount of led strip retailers that advise buyers to make sure that they are utalized in a way that allows for dissipating the heat they generate.Understandbly, the buying public view led strips as “masking tape with little lights in a row”. Stick it to anything and plug it in. They have every reason to expect the tape to firmly and dependably adhere to most surfaces, and that there's a plug on the end of the strip that plugs into the wall. Yep, most people seem very surprised to learn that they need a separate power supply. Why? Because most retailers don't mention it.The bottom line is: LED strips get hot. They don't distribute power easily and voltage drop is a problem with most strips. They are better powered from the middle of the strip, or from both ends.The adhesive on the back of the strips is almost certainly not 3M, even though it says so. In addition, this cheap adhesive has very little strength under the best of conditions. What normally happens is the adhesive backing melts and peels away from the strip and the strip falls. People try hot glue which makes it worse.Most people buy led strips to place under their kitchen cabinets to light their countertops. Most people try to stick the led strip directly to the wood bottoms of the kitchen cabinets. Even if you get extremely lucky and the adhesive doesn't melt, your led strips are going to burn out in a few months due to overheating.Try to find that explained on any of the led retailers sites.
Are led bulbs a fire risk?
The lighting elements of the bulbs don’t seem to be an issue, but I’ve had some recent experiences in my home that have made me start to question the safety of these devices.About a year and a half ago we decided to replace all the incandescent bulbs with longer lasting, more energy efficient LED bulbs. A few months after, one of the bulbs in a living room lamp began to blink on and off periodically. Thinking it might not be screwed in tightly I reached in to tighten it and was quite shocked at how hot the base of the bulb was, so hot it caused a burn blister on both my thumb and index finger. After turning of the lamp, letting the bulb cool before removing I went around to all the easily accessible bulbs and checked the temperatures of the bases and while some felt slightly warm, none was particularly hot, so I figured it was a one off defect and just replaced it with another led bulb.A few months later, another blinker in a different lamp. Because of the first experience I was more cautions and lightly touched the base and sure enough EXTREMELY hot. Removed the bulb and replaced it with another brand and wattage thinking maybe it was a problem with that particular bulb.All tolled now, out of approximately 40 bulbs through out the house we’ve had 7 seven do the blinking thing, found them all exhibiting the same extremely hot bases, two of which got so hot the bases became discolored from their original white to almost a toasted marshmallowy brown.The problem is not specific to a particular lamp/unit, brand of bulb (three different) or wattage bulb.Soooo now I’m thinking these things may be a fire waiting to happen and maybe I should get rid of them all. It would be a pretty expensive bullet to bite, but might be worth it.
Can a small LED flashlight get too hot or catch fire if left on overnight?
You are right that small LED flashlights can get very hot, although they won't catch fire if made of metal and only use AA batteries, not the larger CR123 3-volt batteries. Personally, I would look for a better solution because it is possible your daughter could get burned on the flashlight. Besides, you'll spend a small fortune on batteries (do NOT use rechargeables, they're even more dangerous -- during the charging process). I recently had a LED flashlight (metal body, with 3 volt battery) that was left on all night and it got so hot that the plastic parts melted and destroyed the light. If someone had touched it, it would have been a painful burn.
Can a flickering lightbulb cause a fire if it's not turned on?
A flickering light bulb wouldn't cause a fire if it was on or off. It's probably flickering because of a poor contact somewhere in the lamp circuit or a bulb that's on the verge of failing. You can check this by replacing the bulb with one that you know works from another part of your house/apartment. If the replacement bulb flickers as the old one did, you probably have a bad switch or faulty lamp wiring. If this is the case, repair or replace the lamp.
Will led lights catch fire if paper is wrapped around them?
The thing about LED's is that they emit very little heat (and use very little energy), so they shouldn't be a problem if wrapped with paper or other things. Paper won't actually burn till it reaches 451 F too, but don't know if you're actually using a paper product or a plastic "paper" which isn't actually paper. Either should be fine with the tiny bit of warmth emitted by LED's though. I think the white LED's may be a little different, though probably not in their heat but in how difficult a color they are to achieve cheaply with LED technology.
Are led fairy lights a fire hazard if left on for 24 hours?
The short answer is a rather emphactic ***NO!!!***LED fairy lights (esp. battery-powered ones) are not a fire hazard at all, not even if Fluffy or FiFi chews the cord. The primary reason is that typical strings of LED fairy lights require just 4.5 volts DC and generally operate at currents under 100mA (1/10th of an ampere). Pets are not at risk of electric shock because the voltage is so low and the risk of accidental fire is nonexistant because the current running through the wires is so low.