Hot take: that fancy heat lamp setup at the farm supply store is a fire hazard waiting to happen

I was at Tractor Supply in Austin last weekend and saw a whole display of those red heat bulbs right next to a pile of pine shavings and hay bales, and I swear nobody stops to think how many coops burn down each winter because of those things honestly.

2 comments

2 Comments

wade_perez22d ago

Actually those red bulbs aren't the real problem, it's more the cheap ceramic screw sockets and extension cords people use with them. I've seen so many setups where someone rigs up a 250 watt bulb on a lamp fixture rated for 60 watts and wonders why things get melty. The bulbs themselves are fine if you use a proper brooder fixture with a porcelain base and keep them away from dust and shavings. Don't you think most of the fires are from people skipping the grounding rod too?

aaron70822d ago

Wait, people are actually skipping the grounding rod on heat lamp setups? That's insane to me, I thought that was like the first rule of using those things in a brooder. I've seen so many horror stories online where the only thing that saved some poor soul was a properly grounded fixture catching a short before the whole coop went up. You're totally right about the sockets too though, I swear half the people I know just grab whatever cheap clamp light from the hardware store and think it's fine for 24/7 use. How are folks even getting away with not grounding those things when they're sitting right on wood shavings?