Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What would cause a light bulb to explode?

iMac-Knight said:
If you need to remove the broken part, use a rubber handle screw driver handle first, and it should grip it just fine and not get shocked, even if the power is on.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't do that personally. You have no way of knowing the conductivity of the rubber used. 240v may well be enough to push the current through you even with a rubber handle in place. Afterall, even with rubber-soled shoes you can still get a mains shock...
 
Through a google search, I found this question has been asked often--(and here I thought I was the only one who'd experienced this)--but no one described the incident better than Benjamindaines. The only difference was, I was IN the bathroom when it happened!! And believe me, it has made me a bit edgy! I have a 'light bar' with 6 bulbs above my medicine cabinet. One of the bulbs (those globe-type) was burned out, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it yet.....and it was THIS bulb, the burned-out one, which suddenly imploded/exploded or whatever....and the sound was like a shotgun. The shattered glass ended up all over the place, on the floor outside the bathroom, on the book I was reading, in the bathtub..EVERYwhere. I shutter to think how badly I could have been cut, or even lost an eye if a shard had headed right at me. I am hoping someone can really tell us what to look for to prevent this from ever happening again. Should I call an electrician? Change my light fixture? (the one there is just a month old, which makes it suspect in my eyes) Right now I'm leery of ALL the bulbs in my house. Can someone explain what might be going on?
Thanks so much,
jakmi
 
There is the possibility of a power surge or vibration causing the burnt out filament to arc inside the bulb creating a sudden increase in pressure inside of it causing the bulb to pop after causing some of the metal to change phase into a gaseous state when it is heated so suddenly by the voltage applied to it. The switch doesn't even have to be turned on a proper power surge could jump the small distance between open contacts under the right conditions much like a spark plug in an engine does.
 
gramirez2012 said:
Potatoes are conductors? :confused:
Click to expand...

Potatoes are made of approximately 80% water. Add some starch, sugars, and all kind of other electrolytes and you have enough conductive material to get a resistance of about, say, a MΩ for a potato with the skin and about a one to ten kΩ for a peeled potato. (Crude numbers I basically made up, but I based these on a presentation on security with electricity I have seen in order to be allowed inside my university's electrical engineering labs. The numbers were for humans, of course, but the water content is similar.) Assuming a middle-ground estimate of 100 kΩ, that's about 1.2 miliamperes flowing trough the potato. Increase ten-fold for each ten-fold decrease of the resistance of the potato.

For AC current, you need 1mA to feel the shock. 60mA is enough to kill. So yeah, I'd say a potato is conductive, altough not a very good one ;)
 
Benjamindaines said:
Last night I was watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls (longest title ever!) when I hear that loud BANG; I got up and looked around the house and didn't see anything wrong so I went back to watching my movie. This morning I went into the bathroom and noticed that there was glass all over the sink and that one of the light bulbs was gone (save for the metal bit still in the fixture). What's really stumping about this is that the light was not on when it exploded! A bit like spontaneous combustion, but in light bulb form. It was just an ordinary filament light bulb (60 watts I believe); one of the round bathroom styles ones. Does anyone have any clue as to what could cause a lightbulb to explode when there is not power running to it? :confused::confused:
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1479093990][/doublepost]welll the kinda the same thing happened to mec last nite except i was playing the holy rosary on utube and rearranging my room so i paused it for a second to get some ice cream and on my way out i just looked at the night light that was sitting on top of my dresser unplugged for no reason just looked at it so i came back in the rooom and there is and adjoining batheroom came back in and first thing i felt was uneasy then i saw the lamp shade then i saw glass everywhere the bedroom the batheroom the lampshade was in the bathroom which was unusual but whats really wierd is it was unplugged has been for weeks , on the floor on the glass was a picture of christ and the poem safely home
 
A similar thing happened to me a few months ago.

I woke up at 3:00 AM to go to the bathroom. Walked into the bathroom, flipped the switch, and *BANG* one of the 40w globe lights above the mirror "exploded". I won't say exploded as most of the bulb was intact. But a nice little chunk of glass flew at my eye, thankfully deflected by my glasses that I just so happened to put on.

It scared the s*** out of me. 3AM... quiet... half asleep, and than a loud pop and glass flying into my face.

These bulbs come from the landlords supply closet in the basement. They're cheap, off-brand, Chinese made peices of junk that burn out after 3 weeks.

One of these days I'll go out and buy some quality replacement bulbs.
 
Bianca Castafiore could!

1163653-bianca_castafiore.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: shinji and kazmac
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back