Narrative:

Shortly after leveling off at FL200; the captain instructed me to change the light bulb on the co-pilot side ice detection lamp; as it had not worked during the climb when attempting to check the ice probe for ice accumulation. The first bulb had a bad filament and the second one did not seat properly. I gave the second bulb back to the captain explaining that it did not fit properly. He then instructed me to put it back into the light apparatus so that there would 'be one in there for the write up'. After closing the casing; I immediately smelled a burning odor. I instantly opened the light casing and removed the bulb. Smelling smoke; seeing traces of smoke and seeing the 'circuit breaker pnl lghts' circuit breaker pop. The wrong bulb was used for the ice detection lamp. After about 1 minute the captain decided we should turn around and head back to [departure station] as the weather at the destination was low IFR. He told me to suit up; which I did (oxygen mask and goggles). He then contacted ATC to inform them of the situation. They cleared us back to ZZZ via direct. We descended initially to 15;000 for several minutes and then to 9;000. At this point we continued to ZZZ and landed without further issue.I should have never put the wrong bulb into the light apparatus despite being told to do so by a superior. I believe that we should have descended and landed at the nearest suitable airport. ZZZ was 100 miles away when we encountered the problem. Swiss air flight 111 is the perfect example of why we should have taken immediate action and landed the aircraft sooner than we did.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Dash 8 First Officer reported a burning odor and a popped circuit breaker after installing an incorrect panel light bulb.

Narrative: Shortly after leveling off at FL200; the Captain instructed me to change the light bulb on the co-pilot side ice detection lamp; as it had not worked during the climb when attempting to check the ice probe for ice accumulation. The first bulb had a bad filament and the second one did not seat properly. I gave the second bulb back to the Captain explaining that it did not fit properly. He then instructed me to put it back into the light apparatus so that there would 'be one in there for the write up'. After closing the casing; I immediately smelled a burning odor. I instantly opened the light casing and removed the bulb. Smelling smoke; seeing traces of smoke and seeing the 'CB PNL LGHTS' circuit breaker pop. The wrong bulb was used for the ice detection lamp. After about 1 minute the Captain decided we should turn around and head back to [departure station] as the weather at the destination was low IFR. He told me to suit up; which I did (Oxygen mask and goggles). He then contacted ATC to inform them of the situation. They cleared us back to ZZZ via direct. We descended initially to 15;000 for several minutes and then to 9;000. At this point we continued to ZZZ and landed without further issue.I should have never put the wrong bulb into the light apparatus despite being told to do so by a superior. I believe that we should have descended and landed at the nearest suitable airport. ZZZ was 100 miles away when we encountered the problem. Swiss Air flight 111 is the perfect example of why we should have taken immediate action and landed the aircraft sooner than we did.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.