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Explain this - 4 bulb light fixture wouldn't work with Compact Florescent bulbs

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Explain this - 4 bulb light fixture wouldn't work with Compact Florescent bulbs Ashton Crusher 11-30-2008
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Posted by Ashton Crusher on November 30, 2008, 3:23 am
I'm cleaning up and fixing up a rental and one of the things I did
today was put bulbs in all the fixtures. One fixture had one regular
old style 60 watt bulb in it and I wanted to put CFL in it to cut down
on the heat. The fixture has a 4 bulb "cross" in the center that
holds all the bulbs, it's just a one piece Bakelite type material
cross with 4 sockets in it. Pretty much the same as the two bulb
fixtures you commonly see. I took the old working incandescent bulb
out and put two CFLs in it. They flickered badly. So I moved one to
one of the other sockets... they still flickered badly. So I took one
of the CFLs out and the remaining one stopped flickering but it was
not bright at all, not even for a cold CFL. I tried opposite sockets
and adjacent sockets with the same results for one CFL and two CFLs.
Then I put a third CFL in the fixture and ALL of them light up bright
as day with no flickering. I took one back out and the flickering
returned. I put the incandescent bulb back in one of the sockets and
still had two CFLs in two other sockets and they flickered. I
thought perhaps teh socket was bad and the third bulb put pressure on
it and made it work properly but the incandescent bulb should have
done the same and it didn't. I can't imagine what could be going on
with this fixture... Any ideas???

Posted by Mikepier on November 30, 2008, 8:46 am
Is this light fixture on a dimmer?

Posted by Ashton Crusher on December 3, 2008, 12:24 am
On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:46:19 -0800 (PST), Mikepier

>Is this light fixture on a dimmer?


Nope.

Posted by Pete C. on November 30, 2008, 9:15 am

Ashton Crusher wrote:
>
> I'm cleaning up and fixing up a rental and one of the things I did
> today was put bulbs in all the fixtures. One fixture had one regular
> old style 60 watt bulb in it and I wanted to put CFL in it to cut down
> on the heat. The fixture has a 4 bulb "cross" in the center that
> holds all the bulbs, it's just a one piece Bakelite type material
> cross with 4 sockets in it. Pretty much the same as the two bulb
> fixtures you commonly see. I took the old working incandescent bulb
> out and put two CFLs in it. They flickered badly. So I moved one to
> one of the other sockets... they still flickered badly. So I took one
> of the CFLs out and the remaining one stopped flickering but it was
> not bright at all, not even for a cold CFL. I tried opposite sockets
> and adjacent sockets with the same results for one CFL and two CFLs.
> Then I put a third CFL in the fixture and ALL of them light up bright
> as day with no flickering. I took one back out and the flickering
> returned. I put the incandescent bulb back in one of the sockets and
> still had two CFLs in two other sockets and they flickered. I
> thought perhaps teh socket was bad and the third bulb put pressure on
> it and made it work properly but the incandescent bulb should have
> done the same and it didn't. I can't imagine what could be going on
> with this fixture... Any ideas???

Various thoughts of diodes in the fixture to either provide multiple
light level settings or to save electricity. Main though though is to
just replace the fixture as a new fixture likely costs too little to be
worth screwing around with the old one.

Posted by on November 30, 2008, 9:30 am
> Ashton Crusher wrote:
>
> > I'm cleaning up and fixing up a rental and one of the things I did
> > today was put bulbs in all the fixtures. =A0One fixture had one regular
> > old style 60 watt bulb in it and I wanted to put CFL in it to cut down
> > on the heat. =A0The fixture has a 4 bulb "cross" in the center that
> > holds all the bulbs, it's just a one piece Bakelite type material
> > cross with 4 sockets in it. =A0Pretty much the same as the two bulb
> > fixtures you commonly see. =A0 I took the old working incandescent bulb
> > out and put two =A0CFLs in it. =A0They flickered badly. =A0So I moved o=
ne to
> > one of the other sockets... they still flickered badly. =A0So I took on=
e
> > of the =A0CFLs out and the remaining one stopped flickering but it was
> > not bright at all, not even for a cold CFL. =A0I tried opposite sockets
> > and adjacent sockets with the same results for one CFL and two CFLs.
> > Then I put a third CFL in the fixture and ALL of them light up bright
> > as day with no flickering. =A0I took one back out and the flickering
> > returned. =A0I put the incandescent bulb back in one of the sockets and
> > still had two CFLs in two other sockets and they flickered. =A0 I
> > thought perhaps teh socket was bad and the third bulb put pressure on
> > it and made it work properly but the incandescent bulb should have
> > done the same and it didn't. =A0I can't imagine what could be going on
> > with this fixture... Any ideas???
>
> Various thoughts of diodes in the fixture to either provide multiple
> light level settings or to save electricity. Main though though is to
> just replace the fixture as a new fixture likely costs too little to be
> worth screwing around with the old one.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Sounds like an old fixture with some kind of socket problem. The base
of the CFL may be slightly different, so you see the connection
problem with it, but not ordinary bulb. I'd just replace it. They
are cheap and I would not want anything behaving like that in a house
just for safety.

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