Heat Emitter - Nasty Odor?

[Israel]

I bought Israel a heat emitter today, a 100 watt made by ESU. I put it in a minute ago, so he could go to sleep, and I turned it on. Within a minute or two after turning it on, my entire room now has this... odd smell. It's a metal... almost chemical type smell.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it normal, because I'm heating up a new bulb? I want to make sure it's no harmful chemicals, because I have bad asthma, and I don't want to have to worry about what I'm smelling from that bulb.

 

[JeffSimpson]

Are you sure it's coming from the bulb, or is it coming from what the bulb is heating up? (i.e. top of enclosure, screen, wood, etc)

 

[Buggsy]

Is the fixture you put it into also ceramic? If not the plastic and metal from that may be melting!

 

[Israel]

It's the dome heat lamp with ceramic base, not plastic. And it's definitely the bulb. It's only a 100watt heat emitter, but I use a 150 watt basking bulb, so it's definitely not the lamp.

However, after googling this issue, I found out that is very common and normal, and goes away after a couple uses.

 

[Goonie]

The odor is normal. It happens when the bulb is being "burned in". You should do this for any type of bulb you use in the enclosure, except household ones of course, before putting the beardie in the viv.

Sometimes if there are small particles of dust or hair on the socket, it would also give off a burning smell. As long as you don't see smoke, it's all good :wink: