I’ve done many inspections on flips where the contractor leaves the original porcelain single light fixture but installs an energy efficient bulb, the question is many municipalities require fully enclosed light fixtures but is it acceptable to just change out the bulb.
To answer you question, please explain the light fixture in question further, along with the bulb, seeing there are 4 types of light fixtures and 4 types of light fixture Bulbs…
The 4 types are… * Ambient lighting. Ambient lighting refers to the store’s main lighting. …* Task lighting. …* Accent lighting. …* Decorative lighting.
The 4 types of Bulbs. What are the different types of light bulbs available?
There are four popular types of lightbulbs: Incandescent, Compact fluorescent (CFL), Halogen, and Light-Emitting Diode or… (LED)** .
Looking forward to your answer…
No, it is not acceptable.
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I agree with Larry. If you have a standard Edison based fixture like the procelain type it cannot be in the closet regardless of what type of lamp you screw into it.
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No. I always call out exposed bulbs in a closet. I have also seen fluorescent fixtures with no globe in a clothes closet and call these out. Two problems exist with exposed glass bulbs; the first is heat for incandescent which is a fire hazard if they are inadvertently left on, the second is bulb breakage. Since most closet lights will be mounted right over the door, when you accidentally break the bulb it will fall on your head as you stand in the door.
You may need to point all this out to a client before the Realtor dismisses it as having been that way for 30 years. Do the odds increase or decrease with the passage of time?
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Good answer thanks
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The LED bulbs are all plastic. Not a problem.
You can call this out as a safety hazard if you like, because someone might put a glass bulb there… but there’s no building code requirement to change the fixture. The LED bulbs don’t shatter, don’t generate much heat, don’t create any sort of actual problem unless changed by the owner to the type of bulb used successfully for decades killing fewer people even than Lawn Darts.
I might even go as far as to argue that the plastic LED bulb itself is the enclosure. It’s essentially its own enclosed fixture.
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Could I be more explicit?
That’s obviously not true when it’s screwed into an Edison based fixture. Those particular type LED bulbs have caught fire and are made in two separate parts; the frosted lens, and the current limiting base.
410.16 Luminaires in Clothes Closets.
(A) Luminaire Types Permitted. Only luminaires of the following
types shall be permitted in a clothes closet:
(1) Surface-mounted or recessed incandescent or LED
luminaires with completely enclosed light sources
(2) Surface-mounted or recessed fluorescent luminaires
(3) Surface-mounted fluorescent or LED luminaires identified
as suitable for installation within the clothes closet
storage space
(B) Luminaire Types Not Permitted. Incandescent luminaires
with open or partially enclosed lamps and pendant luminaires
or lampholders shall not be permitted.
(C) Location. The minimum clearance between luminaires
installed in clothes closets and the nearest point of a clothes
closet storage space shall be as follows:
300 mm (12 in.) for surface-mounted incandescent or
LED luminaires with a completely enclosed light source
installed on the wall above the door or on the ceiling.
(2) 150 mm (6 in.) for surface-mounted fluorescent luminaires
installed on the wall above the door or on the ceiling.
(3) 150 mm (6 in.) for recessed incandescent or LED luminaires
with a completely enclosed light source installed in
the wall or the ceiling.
(4) 150 mm (6 in.) for recessed fluorescent luminaires
installed in the wall or the ceiling.
(5) Surface-mounted fluorescent or LED luminaires shall be
permitted to be installed within the clothes closet storage
space where identified for this use.
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Nothing in the building code compels a code upgrade. You can make a safety argument if you like, but the code argument only applies to remodels and new construction.
I was responding to “I’ve done many inspections on flips where the contractor leaves the original porcelain single light fixture”, to make clear that leaving the old fixture is acceptable. If you touch the area or expose anything bring it up to code. If the closet is not intrusively remodeled, it’s fully acceptable under code to do nothing.
How is it acceptable to leave the porcelain that was never compliant in the first place?
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SOME… not all.
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Okay, I get the hot bulb. But for those of us in the back, what is wrong with porcelain again in an older home? Heat?
An incandescent lamp can have a surface temperature of several hundred degrees so yes the heat it generates along with the fragile glass are a cause for concern when it could be damaged and start a fire.
And the porcelain? What if it has an LED bulb with a plastic lens? Porcelain OK?
Bob posted the applicable NEC section {410.16(A)} in post #10. Whatever type of fixture is used it has to comply with that section.
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