Posted By Steve B Ladies and Gents. I work for a company that has large plants, therefore thousands of fluorescent lighting tubes and fitttings. back in 1996 we had a flurry of tubes that fell from the fittings, this was due to the lamp still receiving a current after it had blown, this caused the fitting to melt and release the lamp. at the time we took advice from our senior electrician, put some measures in place and it seemed to work ok. But...... just recently we have had a couple more occurrences. So has technology moved on during the past 10 years? i.e. have tubes been delevoloped that stop receiving a current or have fittings been developed that dont melt? my risk assessment says do block lamp changing to prevent them blowing and melting so please dont state the obvious to me, I have also seen a company that supply shatter proof tubes, but I want to prevent them falling in the first place. I just want to know if there are any expert electrical engineers out there who may have a more cost effective solution. Regards Steve B

Posted By Mike Herbert I would be a bit worried about fluro light fittings melting to be honest. The low power of this type of fitting means they will warm a little but not get hot. The heat should be negligable compared to an incandescent fitting. I assume the tubes are encased in some sort of diffuser to stop them falling to the ground and smashing? Often this is a polycarbonate case sometimes with additional grill. Or the chicken wire sounds like a cheap temporary fix although if there is a fault this may become energised and a hazard in itself. Even when they die they will continue to receive volts but not a current was my understanding of ohms law but i'm no expert. If your installation has not been tested for some time i would get that looked at by a suitably competent engineer. All sounds a little unusual to me. best regards. mike

Posted By Fred Pratley Steve, Although not a "large" plant as such, we do have a significant number of standard flourescent fittings and while once in a while we have had an overheated fitting, can't recall anything like the problem you seem to be having (except where a false ceiling became water logged, but thats another story). However, over the past few years we have changed to the Thorlux very high frequency lighting systems. These eliminate any chance of the stroboscopic effect with moving machinery and dim according to the amount of natural light coming thhrough the roof lights. Not cheap, but these systems have certainly saved money in the longer term, and given rising energy costs, perhaps this may be a way forward? Regards Fred

Posted By Steve B Thanks everybody, some useful information for me to explore Regards Steve B