Designing a Lamp/Light Fixture

Lamps and light fixtures are a great platform for expressing creativity and the possibilities are endless.

When planning your design, make sure you keep safety in mind and provide adequate distance between the bulb (or other heat sources) and any flammable surfaces. Furthermore ensure that your design provides adequate stability to ensure the light doesn't easily fall over.

If the materials you are using are not explicitly fire resistant you should avoid extreme heat sources like halogen lightbulbs. Due to their extremely high temperatures, halogen bulbs can cause a fire. They burn hotter than incandescent and LED light bulbs.

This would require for the bulb to touch the wrong surface for too long which may occur if a lamp falls of the table with the light still turned on. The heat of the bulb can ignite the lamp shade, or other flammable materials it may have landed on top of. Additionally trapped heat can cause a fire to start, for instance if you have a high heat bulb with no way for heat to escape. The light won't ignite instantly, but rather over time as the bulb makes it get hotter until combustion occurs.

If you're building a lampshade from materials such as rice paper, that may burn under high heat or if near a flame, choose only low-wattage bulbs that emit only a small amount of light. Select an LED bulb as a low-wattage alternative to a traditional incandescent bulb for yet another safe option.