This weekend I picked up what seems like a good deal on a light fixture, a Jalli A18 with two pairs of PCs and an added blue led strip.
A problem I later discovered was that it had a vey strong burning smell. I was around the light for a long time, checking the smell, trying to determine what the problem was. It smelled very much like burning electronics or an overheating thing.
I finally opened up the light to try to pinpoint the problem. The only thing that was extremely hot was the AC/DC conversion circuit board for the exhaust fan. So, I removed it. I figured the fan was small enough that I could devise another cooling solution.
Only thing was, was that I didn't solve the smelling problem. Sure the smell wasn't being pumped all around the room but it still smelled like it was burning, if you got close and smelled the fixture.
I googled away and found a forum where someone suggested that new ballasts sometime smell until excess oil from the manufacturing process burned off. I found others that suggested old ballasts leak oil and that was bad and can lead to PCB exposure.
The internals of the light don't look that old and I didn't see any leaking occurring but there was oil in the fixture that I did notice while taking it apart. It was on the reflector part where the guy had added the led strips. I didn't think anything about it at the time but now I'm not sure.
This is a long-winded explanation to say that over a couple of days I breathed in a lot of this burning whatever and yesterday I started to feel a little achy and tired and I started coughing a lot. Being the hypochondriac that I am, I'm sure I've been exposed to high levels of PCBs that will probably result in other issues for me.
Has anyone else had any experience with burning smells in their lights?
I wanted to document this here as a health warning too. I've heard about issues with different types of poisoning from livestock. I wonder if there is a or could be a Health Advisory sticky on "the possible dangers of reefing"...
A problem I later discovered was that it had a vey strong burning smell. I was around the light for a long time, checking the smell, trying to determine what the problem was. It smelled very much like burning electronics or an overheating thing.
I finally opened up the light to try to pinpoint the problem. The only thing that was extremely hot was the AC/DC conversion circuit board for the exhaust fan. So, I removed it. I figured the fan was small enough that I could devise another cooling solution.
Only thing was, was that I didn't solve the smelling problem. Sure the smell wasn't being pumped all around the room but it still smelled like it was burning, if you got close and smelled the fixture.
I googled away and found a forum where someone suggested that new ballasts sometime smell until excess oil from the manufacturing process burned off. I found others that suggested old ballasts leak oil and that was bad and can lead to PCB exposure.
The internals of the light don't look that old and I didn't see any leaking occurring but there was oil in the fixture that I did notice while taking it apart. It was on the reflector part where the guy had added the led strips. I didn't think anything about it at the time but now I'm not sure.
This is a long-winded explanation to say that over a couple of days I breathed in a lot of this burning whatever and yesterday I started to feel a little achy and tired and I started coughing a lot. Being the hypochondriac that I am, I'm sure I've been exposed to high levels of PCBs that will probably result in other issues for me.
Has anyone else had any experience with burning smells in their lights?
I wanted to document this here as a health warning too. I've heard about issues with different types of poisoning from livestock. I wonder if there is a or could be a Health Advisory sticky on "the possible dangers of reefing"...
