Falling Light Panel: A Safety Lesson
On 28th Feb 2025, our second kitchen LED light panel failed. This was the second time in less than a month that our kitchen LED light failed. The first one that failed was located near the kitchen window. When that LED light panel failed, I didn’t know how to change it, and I had to search YouTube to learn some handyman tips on changing LED light panel. I managed to successfully change it.
When this second led light panel which was further away from the window failed, I thought I was already trained to change it. However, as this light was further from the window, it was a darker area of the kitchen, and I found it difficult to see the screw thread without light. Joo See offered to hold a torch to shine a light for me from below because I was on a ladder. Maybe due to my manly pride, I told her it was not necessary, so she stood some distance away.
While I was unscrewing the cables from the LED light panel, it suddenly loosened and fell straight to the ground. This rectangular LED light panel is quite heavy with sharp edges and would have caused serious injury to anyone who was standing below it. I was shocked (not electrically) but very thankful to God that Joo See was not standing below where the LED light panel fell.
Later that morning, we visited a friend in NTFGH and on the way back, we went to the market shops to buy a replacement LED light panel. This shop did not have a rectangular LED light panel and sold us a circular led light panel instead. Fortunately, they gave us an electrical cable connector which did not require screwing. This electrical cable connector must be a new invention, but I have not come across it before. As I was unfamiliar with it, while trying to fix the cables to the panel, the circular panel fell to the ground. Lesson learnt, Joo See was nowhere near where the danger was.
I climbed down the ladder, picked up the panel and tried again to fix it. It was finally fixed after 3 attempts. I am thankful for God’s protection over us.
Psalm 121
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; 8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
Safety Reminder: Please, never stand directly beneath a ladder where falling objects are possible. This includes paint, bricks, hammer, screwdriver or in this case, a LED light panel.
Since both led light panels failed about a few weeks apart because they were fixed at the same time, I have decided that the next time (which I estimate would be about 5 years later) one of the panels fails, we will get an electrician to replace both lights with some other easier to replace configuration. By that time, I will be too old to climb a ladder to fix it myself.
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