# Why Such a Stupid Light in the Laundry Room? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 8, 2008, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-a-stupid-light-in-the-laundry-room/459268 "2008-08-08T05:42:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![A\_Man\_A\_Plan\_A\_Canal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/839c29/32.png) [@A\_Man\_A\_Plan\_A\_Canal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Man_A_Plan_A_Canal)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-a-stupid-light-in-the-laundry-room/459268/1 "2008-08-08T05:42:38Z")
I live in a nice modern house built in 2006. It has a modern electrical system–a variety of hardwired incandescent and flourescent lights that work just fine. But in the laundry room, there’s this weird light. It’s hardwired to the ceiling, a flat glass globe held up there with set screws. Unscrew the screws, the globe can be removed to expose two strange little odd-sized u-shaped flourescent lights that plug into matchingly strange sockets. When the light is turned on at the switchplate, the light doesn’t simply come on as do all the other lights in the house, but instead there’s a pause–sometimes as long as 5 seconds, but usually about 3–and then the lights flash a couple of times, accompanied by a pinging sound, and finally the light comes on and stays on. What’s up with this weirdo light? ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-a-stupid-light-in-the-laundry-room/459268/2 "2008-08-08T06:26:16Z")
Either the lamp elements are close to the end of their life, or the magnetic ballast is checking out. Without a picture of the lamps or the data printed on the lamp base, it’s impossible to say for sure what it is you’re looking at, but I’ll throw out a WAG that they’re double biaxial lamps, possibly an F13 or F18DBX/835/ECO. Those lamps are about 6-7" long, and have a 2 or 4 pin square base which snaps into the mating socket of the fixture. ---
**Author:** ![A\_Man\_A\_Plan\_A\_Canal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/839c29/32.png) [@A\_Man\_A\_Plan\_A\_Canal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Man_A_Plan_A_Canal)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-a-stupid-light-in-the-laundry-room/459268/3 "2008-08-08T12:42:21Z")
Yeah, that sounds like it exactly–but why this kind of a light in the laundry room when all the other hardwired lights in the house are the plain old regular standard kind? ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-a-stupid-light-in-the-laundry-room/459268/4 "2008-08-08T14:57:14Z")
Either a former owner liked the style and changed it, or (more likely) the builder or electrical sub came upon a closeout deal of a few cases of the fixture and had enough homes planned to use them all. ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-a-stupid-light-in-the-laundry-room/459268/5 "2008-08-08T15:50:08Z")
You’re talking about fluorescent bulbs, I believe. Where I live, there are building codes specifying fluorescent lights in the kitchen and bathroom. Maybe where you are laundry rooms have the same requirement? And either the room was too small for a standard 4’ fluorescent or (as previously mentioned) the builder was too cheap. J. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-a-stupid-light-in-the-laundry-room/459268/6 "2008-08-08T17:34:00Z")
How big is your laundry room? Incandescent bulbs give off a lot more heat than you realize, and sometimes in small little closets and laundry room applications, fluorescents are a good choice. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-a-stupid-light-in-the-laundry-room/459268/7 "2008-08-08T18:52:27Z")
It’s a common light fixture in industrial buildings and I second the idea that it is about to die. It should come on instantly like any other florescent bulb. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-a-stupid-light-in-the-laundry-room/459268/8 "2008-08-08T22:04:22Z")
If you don’t want to have to find wierd bulbs for the fixture (and who could blame you?) then now would be the ideal time to find a normal fixture and swap it in. It’s on the fritz anyway, so why throw good money after bad?