I’ve got one of those light trees. You know, you put in three bulbs in three different sockets at different heights and can decide how much light you want where and when. Anyway, last night I wanted to see if I could point one down some more to see if I could go to a lower wattage bulb. While moving the lamp, I heard a pop and smelled burning insulation. Oh, it also smoked real good, so I know it was definitely burning insulation. I went ahead and used a different light for that night and made sure to pull the plug before I went to sleep. Now, my question is, can I keep using this thing as long as I don’t use the one that shorted on me or should I go buy a whole new lamp?
I would toss it. The problem is that with the insulation burned, there is the possibility of a hot wire working through and contacting metal parts of the lamp body, exposing you to an unnecessary shock hazzard. Lamps are replaceable, you (presumably) are not.
I was more worried about a fire hazard than a shock hazard, but you’re right. I’m still mystified as to why it shorted like that–it’s not like I was moving it very hard or in a really weird direction.
One problem with fixtures like that is that sometimes they get a little hot. This tends to make the insulation brittle and with a moveable joint on most of those fixtures shorting out is real easy.
Get rid of it.
IMHO, torchieres and “light trees” are some of the most dangerous lamps ever sold to the unwitting public.
Much like the old edison-base fuses, there’s nothing preventing someone from putting a 100-watt regular household bulb in a socket labeled as 60-watt PAR. This results in the socket and wiring getting cooked with much more heat than intended as the PAR types reflect much of their heat out the end with the light. Regular bulbs put out light and heat in all directions.
Most of them use a cup-shaped reflector with the open end of the cup down and no ventilation holes in the top to allow hot air to escape. As a result the hot air from the bulb stays largely in the cup resulting in overheating. This is generally true of fixtures in which the bulb hangs down and is surrounded by a reflector. Very few of them have ventilating holes in the top of the reflector to allow air circulation.