CF Bulbs

I rent a room in a house, and this room has a ceiling fan, and this fan has 2 light sockets.

There were 2 incandescent bulbs in there. I have just replaced them with CF bulbs, which died a short time later. The first set of bulbs flickered, got hot, and buzzed, smelled, and then just stopped working. I bought another set of replacement bulbs, and when I first put them in, they buzzed, but have stopped buzzing. Now the ballast portion gets hot and the bulb is flickering very intermittently.

Is it normal that the ballast portion get hot?

Could there be something wrong with the fixture?

thanks

Are the bulbs on a dimmer control?

Tom

There is a remote possibility that the lamps are used for more than providing light. It is possible that they are somehow used to help or start the fan motor. Does the fan work if the lamps are removed?

If you have the original lamps, read the lamp description on voltage and power. That might give a clue. Even better would be instructions for running the fan.

Another thing may be to test your CFLs in another socket as well as the original lamps.

Bill

No, they aren't.

As far as I know, they do not help start the fan motor. The Fan works perfectly if the bulbs are removed.

I do not have the original bulbs that came with the unit, they are long gone. The bulbs that I removed are replacements too. My roomate bought the fan years ago, and it's just an ordinary fan from The Home Depot.

It does have a remote control. It turns the fan on 1 of 3 levels, and 1 setting for the light. On or Off.

No, they aren't.

In all cases that I have encountered like yours the lamps are just lamps. They are powered by line current, switched at the fan sometimes, or powered by a dimmer circuit. If there is no dimmer then the CF lamps should work as any lamp. I can't answer your scenario. I would need more info.

Tom

What orientation are the bulbs? I think I remember that some bulbs do not like being sideways or upside down.

Is the fan well balanced?

The bulbs are sideways.

Yes, like me, the fan is well balanced. :-)

You didn't mention the wattage of the CFLs you're using, but you could try lower wattage ones which will produce less heat.

1. Low budget CFL bulbs cannot take the vibration from a paddle fan.
2. I suspect heat is a major contributing factor.

Unfortunatly, they are not low budget bulbs, but real GE bulbs of strange color spectrum, kinda expensive.

Yes, that thought had occurred to me also. They are 26W CF Bulbs. (Equivalent to 100 W incandescent bulbs)

But if I put in 60 W equivilant bulbs in, yes, it will be less bright, but then only using whatever low amount 16 W, so how can they be less hot than a real incandescent 60 W bulb.

The 16W CFL lamps will create less heat than the 26W ones. The incandescent bulbs are irrelevant because they're not the ones burning out.