FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FOLKS BE CAREFUL WITH THESE PUPPIES! I HAD TO USE FIRE EXTINGUISHER LAST WEEKEND TO PUT OUT THE FIRE WHEN MY X10 XPPF BURST INTO FLAMES!

THEY HAVE NO FUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It charred the 2x4 wall stud by the outlet before I got the flames out!

This is the X10 unit (brown) sold by X10. Says UL listed on it.

I can send pictures of the damage and the destroyed unit to anyone interested - just let me know.

What happened is I had right close to a 5 amp load on it (3 sets of 8' florescent bulbs) and when the eagle eye saw me enter the warehouse, it turned on the 15amp wall switch, turning on the lites just like a hundred times before (added this filter 1 month ago). I headed for the refridge in the back to get a beer and heard crackling. I turned around and saw smoke rolling out of the filter then 2 seconds later flames about 12" high! They did not go out. By the time I grabbed a fire extinguisher 5 seconds later it had already charred the wall stud the outlet is mounted on.

The chokes inside the unit are wound on combustible plastic cores. The pcb is totally gone around the male plug pins and the case of the xppf is melted where it also burned. The chokes are not melted down inside THIS unit but the pcb is gone around the 2 male plug pins - must have been a bad solder joint and it heated until the pcb burned away.

This is one of around 20 I have all over our house, office, garage here. Have probably 10 more at another office across town. I believe this is the highest amperage load I have on any (110w bulbs x 3 x 2 = 5.5 amps or so - I may stick clamp on ammeter on and verify this).

Wondering why the fuse did not pop before the chokes (3 total, wound with looks like #18 solid copper wire) overheated and burst into flames, I took another one apart. Wow! It's chokes have the varnish bubbled from overheating AND THE PLASTIC CORE MELTED ON ALL 3! Again, no fuse!

So I guess the moral of the story is consider thoughtfully before using the X10 xppf models instead of the nice smarthome fused models. I am going to ebay right now to buy 30 smart home units to replace all mine! Hate to say it, but I got a firesale on my 30 or so xppf units - anyone want to make me an offer ??

Hi
Can I get the pictures of the burnt units e-mailed to me.

m.mytko@sympatico.ca

Thanks

Mike

Why not post the pics up on here?

I'd like to see them too!

I think you may have overlooked an important fact. When rating a fluorescent fixture you need to look at the ballast itself (not the lamps) - it will list the normal operating current required to run. You must then remember that things such as ballasts/electric motors have an inrush current many times greater than the running current - as much as 5 times the normal load with some ballasts.

A 2 lamp 8' HO ballast (you indicate 110w lamps therefore they must be HO) can easily require 2 amps just to run. That would be 6 amps (3 - 2 lamp ballasts) running load on a 5 amp filter - clearly an overload - but once you allow for inrush (some ballasts, as mentioned, draw as much as 5x at startup) you are anywhere from a couple amps over DOUBLE the rated load to as much as 10X the rating.

I am not implying that you do not know how to handle electricity - the fact that you own a clamp meter (or even know what one is) should put you above the average homeowner in that respect but it seems that many knowledgeable individuals do not know enough about things such as inrush/locked rotor current.

Edit: I thought that I should add that even with a clamp meter it can be difficult to actually measure the inrush current unless the meter has fast min/max logging and you know how to use it correctly.

Excellent points.

"You must then remember that things such as ballasts/electric motors have an inrush current many times greater than the running current "

A magnetic fluorescent light ballast is simply an inductor placed in series with the load, used to limit current. There is no inrush associated with it.