Survivalist Forum banner

A very bad smell of burning plastic in the house, guess what it was?

154K views 70 replies 45 participants last post by  speedofl33t 
#1 ·
Last night we were sitting in our LR and I got up and went into the other room and this burning plastic smell hit me. Now I have to tell you my wife says I have the nose of bloodhound. I told her something is melting and she ignored me as usual. As I started checking rooms it finally hit her because it was getting ridiculously strong. I checked that the lights were all on and checked the smoke detectors and checked the outlets electronics etc. The wife went to stand in front of the open door it was so bad. I was thinking about calling 911 when I thought I would check the lights again and lo and behold one of the CFL's was now out. It was getting very hot and turning black and brown.

I have had the CFL's pop/break and burn out but never had one burn and emit such a smell while still on. The fixture was one over the dining table and the openings face up so it was not easy to look into the fixture at the bulb the first time around.

Another thing I noticed is that the manufacturer did not have their name on the bulb. I assume so you could not trace it back to them. The bulbs came with the house.

I came across these pictures and wanted to warn others if they smell melting plastic check/turn off your lights that have CFL's.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...orm=QBIR&pq=cfl+bulb+melting&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=


My biggest question is how toxic were the fumes? The govt says no. It sure gives you a big headache.

I have to say the CFL's save on the electric bill but are they worth burning down your house? Not like we have much of a choice now. The bulb was scorching hot but it was taken outside. If we had not noticed or been outside would it have caught on fire? Obviously the Voltage Dependent Resister (VDR) did not work on this bulb since it was continuing to heat up/burn when found.

Just wanted to pass on the experience.
 
See less See more
#5 ·
(blink, blink) You DO realize, I hope, that the effort to phase out inefficient incandescents (which are still being made, they just have to meet higher standards of energy use) and phase in CFLs was a largely Republican move, part of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, which passed with bipartisan support and was signed by that arch progressive, George W. Bush?

I hope? :confused:
 
#15 ·
You mean the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007? :rolleyes:

Not a fan of the man, but blame him for the things he HAS done wrong, no need to make stuff up :thumb:

Plus, as of today no bulbs have been banned. They pushed it back and the first wave (100 Watt) comes this fall, followed by 75w, and 60w. 40w will be left alone, as well as rough service bulbs.

Also you could go to the halogen bulbs I've seen on some shelves now as replacements for people who are opposed to switching to CFL or LED. Or you could stock up on the old bulbs. Many many ways around this. My money is on them pushing it back again and then it will eventually go away, and we will look back on it as just a means to force people to try the CFL and LED bulbs.
 
#6 ·
http://www.saferproducts.gov/ViewIncident/1183918

"Normal burnout performance". Saferproducts.gov...LOL. We're far gone, eh?

A PDF from a fire department says some old bulbs from Costco, a brand called Globe, and some others have had similar issues.

Snopes basically lands at: "normal burnout performance", too. Aside, that link discusses mercury in the bulbs - bag and don't lick any broken glass, clean area with damp rag.

As for the aroma, it is not good, but I would not stress unless symptoms persist. You might try to find the type of plastic and check an MSDS - it will probably say consult physician if symptoms persist.

So, my initial guess was gas water heater or furnace. Thanks for the word on these bulbs.

"Working as intended." :headshake:
 
#7 ·
One thing I do is take a sharpie and label the date and save the package/receipt so I can return them when they burn out within a year for the 5 year bulbs. Menards used to take them back within a year but I was told that would end.

The only place I know of that we can frop off burnt out CFL's is at our city hall.

My wife hates the color of the lights but says the soft white is what she wants, I like the cool white or natural. So we have a little of both.

Right out of high school I changed light bulbs for a big employer here in town. I had to put them in a device that chopped them up. I breathed in all that dust for 2 years everyday. I'm waitng for my IQ to go up now. :) Oh and I worked around asbestos that they said was not asbestos. Nothing I can do about it until I get diagnose with meso or asbestosis.

Looking to switch to LED.
 
#8 ·
You were sitting in your Land Rover and smelled the lamp from there?
I get mine from the dollar store, where they cost, uh, one dollar. I have had a couple stink bad when they fail. You got to have nerves of steel......
Who cares if they come from China? Just what doesn't these days?
I like LEDs much better, but for now price does not compute.
 
#10 ·
The bulb was scorching hot but it was taken outside. If we had not noticed or been outside would it have caught on fire? Obviously the Voltage Dependent Resister (VDR) did not work on this bulb since it was continuing to heat up/burn when found.


Good thing you caught that potentially disastrous problem, thanks for sharing your experience. It's possible that it was the resistor that was burning. I've had that happen on other continuous running equipment. In expendable CFLs, the cheapest parts are used in the circuitry.

IMO CFLs are a nuisance economically, environmentally and atmospherically. I'm certain the light they emit reduces serotonin levels in my brain. For the majority of my lighting needs I use time tested incandescents. But for energy reduction needs, I'll take LEDs over CFLs.
 
#13 ·
Incandescents have their own problems. The heat from them can start a fire, especially if you use one that is too big for the application. We will continue to use CFLs for the energy savings. Although we don't ever leave lights on unless we are using them, it's good to know they can give off a bad smell when they burn out. Never had it happen, though.
 
#17 ·
having turned over many apartments, changed many lights therein and cleaned many apartment hallways changing lights there too.... i have had numerous experiences with those.
I would have guessed it was some sort of flourescent going bad.
I have not seen any difference in performance life between the old technology and the new earth saving technology (sarcasm) the bulbs don't last any longer.
I don't like halogens because they get so hot they are a fire hazard, i just go on using my old incandescents (i stocked up like the prepared person i am, and because the law said the stores had to get rid of them i got a great price! ) best wishes.
 
#25 ·
It's 4+ years in the future, but I still want to thank you for your post. This forum thread was the second link to come up in my search for "melting plastic smell in house", and it was exactly what I needed.
I'd been smelling "melting plastic" for most of the day, but initially it wasn't that strong and I figured it was burning dust residue because we'd recently gotten the heating system in the apartment turned on. About an hour ago I went into the bathroom and noticed the smell was stronger at the same point that my migraine went into overdrive. We searched the heater vents in the bathroom and bedrooms but couldn't find a likely source, and the smell was mostly just in the bathroom/hallway outside the bathroom. So I did a search and found your post and sure enough the bulb in the bathroom was brown at the base. We checked all of the CFL bulbs we had in, the ones in the bedrooms weren't as bad, and the one in the livingroom hadn't started browning at all yet, but non of those lights are on as much as the bathroom light is. We have green, blue, and purple LED Halloween lights strung through the livingroom as our main lighting because I get chronic migraines. I think if it wasn't for my migraines we wouldn't have caught the bulbs going out as soon as we did.
It sucks, we haven't had those bulbs for more than a year, I'm willing to bet the crappy wiring in this crappy apartment had a hand in them burning out so fast. Every appliance we have is plugged into a surge protector, the crappy wiring blew out 2 strings of LED Halloween lights before we realized it, but we can't exactly hook a surge protector to the main lighting for the place. I don't think we'd have had an issue with the bulbs if we lived someplace that was grounded and had clean wiring.
Anyway, again, thank you for this post, you saved my brain from severe pain. 😜
 
#37 ·
Glad it helped. That smell is the worst.

I have had much better luck with the GE brand CFL's. I have been switching over to LED's and the GE floods are great and Sylvania 60W equivalent has been the best value for me.

Update on the disposal mess for CFL's around my town.

The town stopped taking cfl's a couple years ago. We could drop them off at Home Depot, but they only take small ones a few at a time. A Batteries Plus is the only place that takes the 4' bulbs that I have found and they charge you. They charge you to take bulk numbers of batteries also, but if you take only a few at a time they don't charge me and it is near where I go often.

Once a year there is a hazardous/chemical disposal and they take bulbs, so hopefully people are holding them to dispose of them then.

I do like the GE brand LED for the flood lights, much better light than the CFL flood I had been using, but can be too bright in some situations.

Now, about the battery operated smoke detectors, can't get one to last more than a couple years without dying/beeping all the time at a senior relatives home. Ugh, serenity now, serenity now..........................
 
#26 ·
I had failures on all the GE CFL's I bought in 2006. GE replaced them under warranty. One that failed apparently had a melted terminal on the Flourescent tube because after I removed it I tossed it in a garbage can and it Flashed breifly. If you live in a climate where you heat your home, there is no savings by replacing the incandescent lights. The heat given off supplants your heating bill. Nobody talks about this when pushing these things.
 
#28 ·
We heat our place just enough to keep the pipes and pets from freezing because my body doesn't regulate heat (it's 46 degrees outside and I've got the A/C running right now), and because of chronic migraines we don't usually have more than our LED Halloween lights on. Actually, if the bathroom had separate switches for the light and the vent fan the CFL bulb in there probably wouldn't have burned out yet because I'd never turn it on and I'm the one who spends the most time in the bathroom in this family (IBS can die in a fire).
I really liked the quality of light the CFL bulbs had, and it didn't burn out anywhere near as fast as incandescent bulbs do in this crappy apartment (they'd last 4-5 months max ��). We're going to look into getting LED bulbs next time, at least for the bedrooms, though I might switch to lamps and surge protectors for the bedrooms so we don't waste money when the wiring shorts everything out.
I wish maintenance in this place wasn't ****.
 
#33 ·
We're going to look into getting LED bulbs next time, at least for the bedrooms,
It switched to LEDs as soon as halfway decent ones became available. I like them much better than the compact fluorescents. It didn't need the government to get me looking for more efficient lighting, though--electric rates are very high here, my place doesn't get a lot of sun, and I work at home, often at night, so more efficient lighting makes a noticeable difference in the monthly bill. I have no idea what the overall impact on the earth of LED light bulbs is, probably not good, but I sure like the much lower electric bill than I had with incandescent lighting.

As for heat output--I don't pay for heat, but I do pay for cooling, so lower heat output with lower electricity use is win-win for me. I like risking my neck on a ladder much less often in order to reach all the 9-foot-up ceiling fixtures as well.
 
#36 ·
I've never had a CFL burn up like that, although I have noticed that sometimes when they go, the top of the base has turned brown and that the top of the base is warm. CFL's from what I understand were originally intended to last longer than regular incandescents, sure they cost more, than regular incandescents, but the rationale is that the payoff was due to the fact that you'd offset the initial cost in energy savings.

What I've noticed these days is that even though the price has dropped significantly from when they first came out in the early 90's, the QA, or lack thereof on CFL's get's me CFL's that last about as long as regular incandescents.
 
#40 ·
We changed out all our bulbs in our old house, we saw a significant reduction in our electric bill.

I worked for a huge company in the 80's, in the building superintendents office. We retrofitted our 2 connected buildings light fixtures from 4 bulb T12 to 2 T8 with a highly reflective shield and new lenses. We increased the light output while getting huge energy savings. The energy cost savings was in the multiple tens of thousands per month.

Reducing my electric bill is a priority, why waste both money and energy? YMMV
 
#43 ·
CFL light bulbs contain mercury, which is pretty toxic. Where I live, it is illegal to throw them in the trash, you have to take them to a recycling center.

All of the lights in my home are Cree LED bulbs (available at most home improvement stores), which are more energy efficient and last longer than CFL bulbs. The LED technology is getting to the point where the price point between CFL bulbs and LED bulbs makes it almost ridiculous for anyone to by CFL bulbs anymore.
 
#49 ·
Exactly. The mercury, and the dangers of it breaking (they are fragile, I used to worry about dropping one in the house or having it break in my hand during installation or removal since they can be stuck sometimes), and costs/hassle of disposal makes me not like CFLs.

LEDs are the way to go. Here's a chart back when LEDs were $20 each. Now I've seen them in store bulk packs for $1 each on sale. But usually about $3 each if you don't buy sale/bulk. Regardless the savings are incredible, and you almost never change them. I've left one on continually for about 6 months... With an incandescent you're changing the bulb 40 times. Say that's an average of a 5 minute task (buying the bulb, taking out old, installing new), that's 200 wasted minutes in your life or 3.3 hours. At an hourly wage of $20 an hour, that's $70 in lost wages... I could go on, but the point is made.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top