Oh, Elektra you fair damsel in distress, whereto my ohms and amps I go?

Is my plight with your volts forever to stay my watt and foe?

After the herculean task of moving from farm to town-house twice within 6 months, we have now finally unpacked and are settled in a new town-house not far from shops, railway-station and cinema.

All the ceilings have down-lights. They are all the rage now and are 12 volt halogen powered. The reduction from 240 volts to 12 volts gets done by an equal portion of increase in heat. There is nothing like Einstein’s theory of relativity being proven. While we live now in a new dwelling-town-house and the roof is insulated by a thermal blanket, we thought of insulating the ceilings as well. There is nothing like feeling snug and warm in winter and cool during heat. We feel, like so many, that our ecological footprint ought to be kept as modest as possible without compromising in comfort.

When the insulating expert quoted us, he explained that every one of those down-lights would have to be covered up, as well as each accompanying transformer, and kept away from those fire resistant polyester insulating batts, the argument knocked me for six. Those down-lights can achieve a temperature of over 370 Celsius, he enthused.  Yes, he continued “they are a bit like having toasters in your ceilings”.

Even though the down-lights are twelve volts they still burn 50 watts each and another 10 watts for each transformer. This is a very expensive way to light up your house.

 “Heaps of houses have burned down, especially after the covering up by heat resistant thermal batts.” The insulating man was rocking on his heels now, not unlike the Shires weed inspector triumphantly spotting a nasty Paterson’s curse back on the farm. I got really warmed up to the subject now.

 Needless to say, we decided to install the insulation but only after covering those hotwired halogen down lights with special covers to which the insulating batts can be snugged-up to. The next step will be to replace all the halogen down- lights with fluorescent down- lights, doing away with the danger all together and catching two flies in one swat, ‘lowering heat and danger and being friendlier to the environment with less coal fired use of electricity. Save on electricity bills.

We have an amazing 32 of these halogen 370celcius heat giving down-lights in our modestly sized town house, including 12 of these in our lounge cum dining-kitchen area alone.  We have 2 of those in the fume extractor above the gas stove, fatally focussed on the fried bacon and eggs. Can you believe it?  The extractor catches the fat, ideal to burn the house down while cooking chips!

Have a break with this, Una Furtiva Lagrima; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Funp7JTWp2A

Needless to say, after our discovery of all those potential fire bugs cum-toasters hidden in our ceilings we hardly turn them on now and will get them replaced pronto, at least as soon as the electrician will spare the time. In the meantime we have plugged in reading lights and creep around with torches. You would have to be mad using those fire bugs of lights. Just imagine after a night of celebrating with a particular nice bottle of Shiraz, falling asleep with the down-lights sizzling away above the marital bed’s ceiling?

Is this another one of those ‘asbestos’ like dramas ready to blow up in the future? Tens of thousands of homes have those dangerous lights and tens of thousands more will no doubt be built in the future. How on earth was this form of lighting ever allowed to happen? How did this pass the building regulations? The resulting fires after the government subsidized insulation schemes are partly or perhaps mainly to blame on those 370 C heat giving concealed fire hazards inside ceiling cavities. This might well have been avoided if those lights would never have been approved in the first place.

 But, there is more.

Another amazing bit of Aussi architecture is those much-loved black roofs. . Has anyone ever measured the difference in temperature between black and light coloured surfaces exposed to sun and light? Black roof surfaces together with those 370celsius down-lights would have to create the most perfect combustible area between ceiling and roof imaginable.  We are supposed to clear debris around the house, rake leaves, clean gutters during the bush fire period but it might be even more prudent to look at those dodgy lights. Of course, anyone ever having ventured through a manhole into the roof would have noticed a possible built up of debris, dry leaves, old storage of papers, rats nests etc. I shudder to think of the nightmare what the halogen light in contact with that debris could result in

It is easy to blame the insulating contractors, but there is something fishy here. We love to rely on an economy that includes our love of home ownership and home building. Nothing must stand in its way. I suspect that the need to keep propping up housing industry might include a rather lax ‘laissez faire’ attitude to a whole host of regulations. One of them might be allowing housing to be built badly insulated in the first place, with black roofs and those potential halogen furnaces. No matter how you look at it. To have anything fastened onto a ceiling capable of such enormous heat is stupid and very dangerous.

It’s not hard to find the evidence of the danger of halogen down-lights:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/07/21/1184560109174.html

In Victoria there were 57 house fires caused by halogen down lights in 18 months. The fire begins in the roof as the insulation is ignited by the 300 plus degrees Celsius temperatures produced by the light fitting. As the fire is in the roof it often goes undetected by smoke alarms, and residents can be unaware of the fire until it crashes through the roof.

Unless tougher regulations on the use and installation of halogen down lights are introduced, it is only a matter of time before someone is killed; the Metropolitan Fire brigade has told The Sunday Age. Two young children almost died in separate blazes when roofs crashed onto their beds while they were sleeping, brigade investigation and analysis unit officer Rod East said.