As a volunteer light-bulb distributor, Roger Downey received his free packs of compact fluorescent bulbs the other day to hand out to neighbors. The program is part of the city’s green campaign to lower energy use. Having dedicated most of his adult life to snooping, the now-retired Seattle Weekly writer by nature read the packaging’s fine print. The bulb, in the swirled shape of a soft ice-cream cone, was intended “for use in indoor dry location only.” OK, Downey thought. Except City Light had sent the bulbs to Downey, and to thousands like him over the past few years, for use on their front porches—which, in Seattle, tend to be outdoor wet locations. The caution label further noted the bulbs were “not for use when directly exposed to water, or to weather…” and warned of “risk of electric shock.”
Downey wasn’t shocked, so far. But he was surprised, as was the person he spoke to at City Light’s Porch Light Brigade, which supplies the environmentally friendly 13-watt Greenlite bulbs. She was unaware of the inside/outside confusion. The persistent Downey then talked to an official at Underwriters Laboratories, the product-compliance experts, who told him the bulbs were for indoor use only and the labeling contained contradictory language by stating indoor bulbs could be used outdoors if not “directly” exposed to weather.
City Light Neighborhood Power Project director Juan Peralez tells us he was unaware of the labeling conflict, and after Downey’s call he contacted superiors and asked, referring to the label, “Have you guys read this?” No problems had been reported with the thousands of bulbs they’d distributed in recent years, says Peralez, but the labeling raised concern. City Light contacted Greenlite, the Southern California firm that provides the made-in-China bulbs. After chatting, city conservation specialist Andrew Gibb and Tom Cohen of Greenlite agreed it was a labeling error no one noticed. Says Gibb, “The statement about using the bulbs ‘indoors only’ wasn’t on the packaging originally,” but was mistakenly added about three months ago. Adds Cohen: “A copywriter in China did not do the right language—’Do not use outside.’ Duh, you can use it outside.” Greenlite is revising the label and providing corrected warning stickers to be applied to the city’s remaining bulb stock; they’ll say “For use in dry locations only,” with the word “indoor” having been removed. The city approved.
Re-enter Downey. Dry, he told Gibb, is another way of saying enclosed—or indoors. As a UL spokesperson told Downey in an e-mail, “Using it [the bulb] on an open porch would be a misapplication.” Alas, the city re-contacted Greenlite, and finally this week decided to “modify” its message to bulb recipients. “We will no longer emphasize the use of the bulbs in porch lights during distribution,” says Gibb. “Our literature will instruct people to use them indoors or in weather-protected areas like garages, and outside if in an enclosed fixture that provides weather protection.”
Meanwhile, Downey says, Gibb told him he can distribute the lights to neighbors with any caveats he prefers—such as, don’t use these porch lights on your porch. “And that,” says Downey, “is what I’ll do.” Conservation yes, he says, condensation no.
