you know what doc, i was worried at first, too. maybe not worried, but a little leary. whatever adjective i'm looking for. either way, i never took much stock in all of the hubbub about these lights, thats why i bought them. what i did was just left the actincs on while i was away, then when i was home i burned the halides. since i didnt have any photosynthetic animals it didnt matter if they were on for 30 minutes or 8 hours. i did this until i felt comfortable with them. i would have done the same thing with any fixture. like i said before, with this amt of electricity sitting over a box of water i would initially be cautious with any light. they run fine dude. they get warm, but all halides do. i have no problem leaving for the weekend with the lights on timers. i did some serious research before buying them, and i've talked to a large amount of people that have owned them for years who are still happy with them. i'm really pleased with them and i think you will be, too. my suggestion to you is to run them the way i did until you're comfortable turning your back on them. the reason you're not comfortable is because you heard from somebody, who knew somebody that had a pool guy whos dog got groomed by a dude who used to date a chick whos father went to a dentist who filled a cavity in a kids mouth who went to school with a kid whos father had heard that the fixtures are a hazard. (at least thats why i was leary) but after realizing the overwhelming amount of people that run these things w/o incident, i realized it was much ado about nothing. if odyssea had problems in the past, they've been addressed and fixed. i'm comfortable saying that i think you'll be pleased with them.