You have a 100W bulb in that desk lamp?

Please tell me it is a 23W CFL (equiv to 100W incandescent), because otherwise you are risking an overload.

Most desk lamps are only supposed to run between a 40W and 60W incandescent bulb, so a 100W bulb burning in a desk lamp, inside a big cardboard box, is a house fire waiting to happen.

Also, that sort of hooded desk lamp is designed for an incandescent bulb that loses heat from the front of the bulb. The CFL bulb produces most of its heat in the ballast and in that sort of lamp there is very little air space around the ballast. Even a 23W CFL will overheat without some sort of extra cooling.

I use a similar sort of lamp for seedlings (in the bathroom rather than a box) and have to keep a fan running to cool the bulbs. Twenty minutes without the fan and the lamp shade is too hot to touch, an hour will trip the circuit breaker. I should note it is summer here and that may be influencing the speed of overheating.

Is it possible to remove the metal shade and just run the bulb bare? that way the lamp will at least have the space inside the box to discharge some of the heat.

Be careful :hippy: