Welcome to my Homepage Blog. Here you'll find stories about inspections I have done and facts I think are interesting to share with you. Come back often to see what's new.
-Glenn, a.k.a. The House Whisperer
| What's In Your Closet? |
| Written by Glenn Stewart |
| Wednesday, 18 August 2010 17:05 |
|
Most people open their closets, flip on a light switch, select their clothes and don't think about the closet light. Folded clothes, cardboard boxes, photo albums and paper wrappings are stacked and stuffed onto closet shelves... Not a bad thing unless it's within inches of an unprotected incandescent light bulb. Googling 'surface temperature light bulb'... suggests temperatures can be around 285F degrees for a 60 watt light bulb. Flammable items that are too close to a hot bare bulb light could ignite and burn your house down. Forgetting to turn off the closet light or changing a burnt out light bulb and replacing it with a 100 watt bulb because you didn't have a lower wattage bulb are possible scenarios. Any lighting that you use in your closet needs to be covered or recessed for fire safety. During a recent Pacific Coast Inspections home inspection in Oakland, clothes were stacked next to a light fixture missing its protective cover. If you have incandescent light bulbs, your safest option is to replace it with a different kind of light fixture or as a minimum replace an incandescent bulb with a CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulb with a low wattage. |
