Someone wrote to me today, sending a message that has been circulating on the Internet for about a year, an article that warns that CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps) can and may cause fires.

That claim has been debunked by a number of sources.

I wrote back to the individual: Check this link: [1] CFL Bulb Fire Risk

Given the much-higher purchase price for CFLs, it seems that there is little advantage for anyone living in Canada in using CFLs instead of traditional incandescent light bulbs.  Here is more on that.

Heating and cooling

If a building’s indoor incandescent lamps are replaced by CFL’s, the heat produced due to lighting is significantly reduced. In warm climates or in office or industrial buildings where air conditioning is often required, CFL’s would reduce the load on the [2] cooling system when compared to the use of incandescent lamps, resulting in savings in electricity, in addition to the energy efficiency savings of using CFL’s instead of incandescent lamps. However, in cooler climates in which buildings require heating, the [3] heating system will need to replace the inadvertently generated heat. While the CFL’s are still saving electricity, total greenhouse gas emissions may increase in certain scenarios, such as the operation of a natural gas furnace to replace the unintended heating from CFL’s running on low-GHG electricity. In [4] Winnipeg, Canada, it is estimated that CFL’s will only generate 17% savings in energy when switching from incandescent bulbs, as opposed to the 75% savings that can be expected if there were no heating or cooling considerations.^{[5] [21]}
Source: Compact fluorescent lamp, [6] Heating and cooling; Wikipedia

The Wikipedia article on CFLs contains this information about fire:

Fire hazard

When the base of the bulb is not made to be flame-retardant, as required in the voluntary standard for CFL’s, then the electrical components in the bulb can overheat which poses a fire hazard.^{[7] [80]} The latest ENERGY STAR CFL specification (which went into effect December 2, 2008) requires all ENERGY STAR qualified CFL’s to incorporate end-of-life requirements and higher safety standards.^{[8] [81]} The Electrical Safety Authority of Canada has stated that certified bulbs do not pose a fire hazard as they use anti-fire plastics.^{[9] [82]}

Source: Compact fluorescent lamp, [10] Design and application issues; Wikipedia

The article at the following link is reasonable with respect to it properly summarizing safety concerns.  Moreover, it is more recent than the year-old item you had forwarded.

CFL fire hazard a misconception
Fluorescent bulbs have safety measures built in

[11] Full Story

However, that article promotes the misconception about CFLs being able to provide for large energy savings.  That CFLs will do so is quite simply not true for anyone living in an area requiring heating of one’s home, unless air-conditioning costs are substantially higher than heating costs.

I have not done a proper examination of the causes of fires.  It seems to me that I have read far more reports about incandescent lights causing fires than about fires caused by CFLs.  Nevertheless, I would play it safe and would not leave a CFL lit unattended if it is placed so that sparks from it, when it should fail catastrophically, could fall on any combustibles — such as upholstery — placed below it.  I seem to recall one report about a fire having been caused in Edmonton last year, involving those circumstances.

Nevertheless, any discussions about the relative merits of CFLs over incandescent lamps are now largely moot, unless anyone affected was smart enough to lay in a life-time supply of incandescent lamps.  The incandescent light bulbs we all had become accustomed to during the past hundred years are no longer being manufactured by General Electric, who closed down their last plant for manufacturing them in September of 2010.  In that area, too, climate alarmism won out over common sense.  Read this article: [12] An end of an era – the incandescent light bulb (by Anthony Watts, Dec.27, 2010).