I distinctly remember, as a kid, growing up in the 90s, when bulbs failed they'd almost always emit a really bright flash of a strange color. I think this freaked me out more than anything.
Thought the same. I don't think I've ever seen one of our LED bulbs fail yet.Not really an answer to your question but more a solution to your problem.
Change your lightbulbs out for the newer LED types and problem solved.
They virtually last forever and if they do fail which has yet to happen for me, I beleive they don't pop!
The thing I hated most were that CFLs took so long to reach full brightness. I want light now, not in five minutes. I don't remember if LEDs ever had that issue.Early LEDs were pretty poorly designed and had bad color spectrums, often decidedly blue. My city proposed replacing the sodium-vapor streetlights with LEDs and there was a big debate about the matter. The intensity and color temperature were a big issue.
Even the early LED bulbs I had at home exhibited the same problems. I still have a old LED nightlight in the kitchen that is ice blue.
Today's LEDs are much better.
CFLs on the other hand were absolutely appalling.
Almost all of the published specs were a sham. They had weird color spectrums (like outputting lots of green wavelengths). The electronic ballasts were noisy and failed frequently. The published lifespans were always way over real-world performance since those tests only measured the bulb performance and not the electronic ballasts. Worse, the rated light output measurements were taken when the bulbs were new. Old CFLs near the end of their life output about half as much light as new bulbs.
There used to be this insane Cnet contributor who raved about CFLs, his initials were R.N. Pretty much everything he espoused about CFLs was wrong. What an idiot.
I had a somewhat similar experience once. When I had to replace the bulb, the glass split. Most of the cover came off and remained in one piece, but a lot of small sharp pieces remained attached to the bulb. Luckily the cover did not shatter or it would've fallen on me.When I was about four, I was terrified of the "big bulb" in the bathroom at my grandmother's place. At that age I wasn't able to articulate the reason, which probably didn't help my poor mother as she tried to comfort me! But anyway, this particular bulb took a few seconds to come to full brightness, and vice versa. And that was the problem. If I turned the switch off, I expected the light to switch off immediately. But in this case, I'd cut the power but the bulb was *still shining*... and that was a scary concept for a four-year-old!
When I was older I was, of course, changing bulbs myself. The fittings used here involve a "push and twist" motion. I was always paranoid about breaking the glass (which never happened), but one time, with a cheap bulb, I pushed... and the whole glass cover popped off the metal cap. That didn't help with the paranoia!
Of course, with modern LED lights you can just grab the plastic "base", and I have no fear of them whatsoever.
Couldn't stand CFL. Buzzing noise, poor light color, took a long time to warm up, EMI noise (ruined radio reception), expensive, hazardous mercury when they broke, very unreliable in the garage in cold months, and completely useless as a porch light in the cold months. But worst of all, the "Feit Electric" brand CFLs I got at Home Depot had cracking, yellowing, and scorch marks--that's scary.
It ticks me off. I've heard some blasted so insanely loud that I could hear it 3/4 of a mile away. I could sometimes feel it when in my house in Seattle. Don't hear it as much down here, but if I went to Phoenix I'm sure it would be the same deal. When I go on trips to Bullhead City I can sit behind people who blast it really loud.I know this has turned into a conversation about lightbulbs, but I will share my strange fear:
I, even to this day, get unnerved when I hear booming bass coming from a car. It was something I was afraid of as a kid, along with the sound of motorcycles (and I still don't like the sound of a motorcycle accelerating), but that booming bass still puts me on edge. I'm not sure if it's because I associate it with people in cars who are up to no good (I've had a number of dreams where there are people in a car after me, either intending to rob me or kidnap me) or if it's just a reaction to a sound I find unpleasant.