Why does my lamp smell of fish

You are often plugging and unplugging electrical appliances and devices to the outlet, which can break or wear down connections. If you have an appliance that is causing a surge, this can also cause the outlet to arch.

Hard-wired light fixtures, such as overhead lights, can also be a point of electrical fire hazard. These light fixtures are similar to outlets in the way that electricity is delivered. According to the National Fire Protection Association NFPA , electrical delivery systems or fixed lighting results in damage to more than 24, homes per year on average.

The second most common cause of a fishy smell in the home are outdated electrical wiring, breaker box, or other electrical equipment and components. If you live in an older home, your electrical system might not be up to date, or it might be decomposing. When the insulation on wiring begins breaking down, it allows that wiring to overheat. Old breaker boxes that are not designed for the current electrical load of your family can also be a cause for concern.

These breaker boxes can cause electrical surges or arcing faults, which is the cause of more than 28, home fires per year on average according to the NFPA. If the home has been upgraded with new appliances but not new wiring, the breaker box may not be rated for the load you are putting on it. If you can, you stand a good chance of rising to the top of the page. The page which is the search champion for "why does my light smell of fish? The page doesn't answer just this question, but rather a whole range of potential smells from within the home.

It's a useful page, and I'm sure it gets a steady stream of traffic from concerned homeowners. Probably not, it's just that Google can't seem to find an electrician in Nuneaton who has the answer? R egister for your FREE place.

Why does my light smell of fish? Do you have a fishy electrical problem? You've probably arrived at this page for one of three reasons. The first one being you have a problem. You've discovered a fishy smell, and you think it could be coming from a lightbulb or perhaps another electrical appliance. So let's get that answer out the way. In my previous career developing power electronics for LED drivers and fluorescent lamps, I've experienced the pungent fish smell on quite a few occasions.

The fishy smell usually associated with something going wrong, badly wrong. The scent comes from hot components, most often from the printed circuit board inside the device itself. The pungent smell is a sure sign that something has just failed or is about to. If you ever have a good sniff of an LED lamp or fixture which has died, you'll soon recognise the smell. Beware, people will think you are strange for going around sniffing lights. Has the article title drawn you in?

You may have arrived at this page because you were intrigued by the title. If it was indeed the dog, we just couldn't wrap our brain around why the smell kept coming and going? Then around midnight it hit me! My worst nightmare was coming true. Just kidding. Don't worry, it wasn't Bambi. This was just the only picture of an animal I have on my camera's memory card right now. Isn't he cute? At this point I start doing what any normal person would do in the 21st century, I start Googling.

And much to my dismay my "fishy smell in house" search turns up something perhaps scarier than a dead animal wasting away between my walls. It's most likely something electrical! Think melted electrical outlets, sizzling overheated circuits, or faulty wiring What ever the case, it could be a fire waiting to happen! Search "fishy smell' in Home Disasters forum.

In that case it turned out to be melting plastic in the electricals. You could switch the bulbs just to check but unless it's very obvious it's the bulb and you can throw it out and put in a new one and you have no further problems, I wouldn't be using those lights until an electrician has taken a look. I never would have thought to search for "fishy smell. Right now I'm recovering from knee surgery, so that's why I haven't put these good ideas into action yet. I really appreciate the guidance.

HI Lynn. At first I thought how odd but then I thought, wait, I've seen a question like this before somewhere. Sorry about the knee. I once found a quick way to get into a small boat. Avoided surgery but had to have physiotherapy. Frustrating time. Hope you're better soon. I switched the lightbulbs, and the one bulb smelled in both fixtures, the other bulb did not smell in either lamp. So, it seemed clear that it was the bulb that needed replacing. We got another bulb - Westinghouse, halogen, bayonet-based volt, watt bulb.

It smelled too. The old bulb that smelled was a Westinghouse. I know I was very careful and did not touch the bulbs, so the fact that the new bulb smells makes me wonder about the Westinghouse bulbs. Anyone know anything about why their bulbs would smell - are they inferior bulbs? The older bulb that did not smell was made in Japan - PEC bulb.

We couldn't find it locally, which is why we bought the Westinghouse - not knowing that Westinghouse bulbs in general were a problem. I can try to find the PEC bulb on line, or buy yet a third locally available brand.

But I"m curious about this bulb. I may post a new thread about those bulbs in a few days, but thought I'd report back here first. After 9 days, I'm walking easily without pain, and even doing stairs slowly with alternating feet. The cheap bulbs that came with our new halogen fittings smelled bad not fishy and some didn't work at all.

The replacements we bought were fine so we ended up replacing every bulb. Our small lights beside the bathroom vanity take small incandescents. The local supermarket stocks only one suitable brand. After some mysterious smell problems we realised it was these bulbs. After it happened three or four times I rang the manufacturer and they knew all about the problem.

Sometimes the cement that the glass is set into hasn't cured properly. They suggested leaving the bulb on in the garage so the heat it generates would set the cement and then I could move the bulb to the bathroom! We don't buy Philips bulbs anymore. When we moved into this house the bulb in the rangehood failed five times in the first month.

As the house was new and everything was under warranty we had someone come out and check the rangehood. It was fine, it appeared it was just a bad batch of bulbs. Haven't had that problem again. There are definately some quality control problems out there. Sorry I can't suggest any brands, as we are in Australia. Isn't it a wonderful milestone when you can walk down the stairs normally, even if a little slowly.