Should lamp weight a lot? (Earthquake safety)

Last week LA was hit by a magnitude 5.1 earthquake, we were just glade no one was killed or serious injured, then this week Chile was shook by a magnitude 8.2 earthquake. Thanks to strict building code, only few were killed in this earthquake despite its super strength.

I remember watching a video of simulated earthquake, everything was shacking, especial the hanging shop light style lamp in the middle of room. It started moving back and forth, suddenly one chain that leash one side of lamp broke, and the lamp just swam though the room, like a knife hang by its end, then fall on floor, smash into piece. Of course, that was a fluorescent shop light with glass tubes. With the power of simulated earthquake keep increasing, eventually cabinet, bookshelf all fall, making bigger mess; but I remember the lamp fixture was first one that broke out of control.

Why? a typical 4' long T8 fluorescent shop light weights nearly 10lbs, and they are hang high by two thin chains which give it waggle room to work on the damage. And after it fall, shattered glass can further do more damages.

Look at the traditional shop light design, sheet metal lamp shell, metal box ballast, long glass tubes, sounds like a trouble prone combination. and no wonder it has to weight so much. Do we really have to have all that to make light?
Here is our answer to that. Our World Lamp LED shop light is a 36" long shop light that illuminate as good as a 4 feet long two T8 fluorescent tube. Yet our lamp only weights 1 lb 10 oz. It can be hang by two small nails or thin chain/wires.

Illustration: World Lamp shop light hang by two thin metal wires

 And the lamp is made by safe material; it doesn't contain glass, mercury or any other dangerous material. Even when it does fall from high space, it wouldn't do much harm.
This is a nice lamp, low cost as lower than $50 per lamp. The price near a traditional fluorescent shop light , but it's LED light source, use about half of energy and will last much longer.




World Lamp is available at EasyLEDlighting.com

Example of convert Fluorescent lamp to LED lamp

Here is an example how I convert a fluorescent ceiling lamp into LED lamp. To decide if a lamp can use Easy LED module for conversion, there are couple of things we should be looking into.
First, Easy LED module is about 9" long and 3 inch wide. We can decide where and how many modules to be fitted into lamp case. Some lamps could use two, some lamps could fit 3 or more modules. In this example, we choose two modules for the size of lamp and light output. The second thing we want to check out is whether it has proper diffuser and the diffuser should be placed at least 4" away from light source.

The lamp of target a 14" square lamp, it uses 2 round fluorescent tubes of 32W and 22W, totally 54W, and the Easy LED kit I use is 30Watt Easy LED kit to replace the light source.

32W + 22W fluorescent tubes

To install, the first step is to remove fluorescent tubes and the ballast, we only need the power feed. The ballast can be removed by losing two screws, and the metal hooks can be removed by moving them back and forth several times then pull off.

Second step is to mount Easy LED modules and driver on the lamp base. I mount the module at symmetric far side location and mount the driver in the middle for balance of weight and light output. Make sure you leave the lamp base mounting screw holes uncovered. The lamp base is clean and smooth, I use attached double sided tape to fasten the modules and driver; however the lamp base is somewhat soft and twist-able (wobble) , so I also use included mounting screw to enforce the mounting (use 7/64" drill bit to drill a pilot hole first, the the screw can be easily screwed in ), I only need one screw per module.


Once modules and driver are mounted, follow the link to connect the wires, put the diffuser cover back on. The conversion is then completed, it took me less than 20 minutes. Now this lamp only cost about half of energy to run and the 30 Watt LED lamp is brighter than existing 54 Watt fluorescent tubes for this lamp. And I don't think I will be needing a ladder for replacing burn tube for a long long time.


30 Watt Easy LED kit is available at www.easyledlighting.com for sale with $39.
Typical LED ceiling Lamp would run at $90.