Lighting + blown fuse

[kvasir]

Apologies for posting what must be the most basic of electrical questions but it's late and I can't face doing a trawl right now to find the answer!

I had headed off to bed when I realised I'd left stuff I need for tomorrow in the lounge. I went into the lounge to get it, hit the light switch, blue flash, and the lights went out. It's a ceiling light, with 5 not very energy efficient bulbs. One had been out for a couple of weeks but I'd not got round to changing it.

Anyway, I had a look at the fusebox and right enough a switch marked 'lighting' was down in the off position. I've had a check round and all other ceiling lights and plugged in appliances are working fine. The fusebox, btw, was replaced about 4 years ago after a spate of incidents such as this.

Being a girly, electricity makes me rather nervous so I'm unsure as to what to do now. I've left the fusebox switch as off and the lounge light switch likewise, but do I buy and fit new bulbs tomorrow, put the switch back to on and if everything's ok breathe easy?

If I do this and it blows another set of bulbs should I be getting in an electrician?

Or should I be doing something else entirely?

Any advice much appreciated!

 

[plugwash]

have you tried the fitting since?

It was probablly just a bulb going out with a bang, lightbulbs have a nasty habbit of doing that sometimes.

 

[RF Lighting]

You should be fine just to replace the blown 'bulb' and switch the circuit breaker back on.


It is not uncommon for a failing lamp to cause the MCB to operate.

This is because as the lamp fails, it breifly causes a short circuit, and as MCBs are very quick to react to this sort of fault (much faster than old style wired fuses) it will trip.

This is really nothing to worry about. It is just the MCB doing the job it was designed for.



<edit> I can't beleive I was too slow to get the first reply at this time in the morning

 

[kvasir]

Thanks very much guys (and I can't believe I'm still up to reply to this!)

All the remaining 4 bulbs went at once though, which hasn't happened before (certainly not since I got the fuse box replaced). And one going doesn't normally trip the fuse box.

Ah well, I'll hot foot it to good ol' Tesco tomorrow and get 5 new bulbs and hopefully all will be well.

Thanks again.

 

[securespark]

Try and get ones that say "fused" on the box. IIRC, Tesco brand do.

This will hopefully lessen this scenario in the future.

 

[JohnD]

Compact Fluorescents ("Energy Saving Bulbs") don't have this problem. They also last much longer and save electricity.

 

[Space cat]

All the remaining 4 bulbs went at once

Are these low voltage bulbs?