pelmet lighting in kitchen

[HIPPO]

I have a new kitchen fitted and have installed pelmet lighting under the wall mounted units.
I have used the existing wiring (feed) which is 1mm twin/earth,The lights are 13 watt & 15inch long & interlinked with 1mm 3 core flex.the light switch is 2 gang brushed chrome. the problem that i have is that when the light are switched on they work but if you swicth off then on again they trip out and have burned the cable at the connection to the first light.it has also blackened the cable at the light switch.

I have disconnected all wiring as a safety measure.
Have you any ideas as to what could be causing this.

 

[Big_Spark]

Loose connection is the most likely cause of what your seeing, although with the tripping there is a possibility of an earth fault in play. It might be that one of the fittings, probably the one with the blackened connection, has a small fault and is leaking to earth. If you have an RCD main switch, is it this tripping out? If you do not have an RCD main switch, just a fuse or MCB, and these are tripping, then you have a problem which is likely to be a short in the wiring.

You say the fittings are 13W, 15" long ...are these filament lamps or 300mm fluorescent tubes?

If they are florries, then one may have duff control gear in it causing the problem and is worth checking seperat from the others.

First task, check all connections for loose screws, check the plugs for loose fitting when plugged in. Make sure there are no stray strands of cable that could be causing the problem.

Check that all the internals of the fittings are tight and none of the control gear (if florries) are browned or showing other signs of heat stress..check the terminals of the gear, this is usually a good indicator.

 

[HIPPO]

I probably did not explain properly.
there is no tripping of any rcd/mcb at the consumer unit. as i should explain when switching on & off there was a bang and the cable connected to the light(florries) started smoking.I then fipped the switch off. i flipped the switch on again the lights came on and there was a another bang this time from the switch.
Could this still be the problem as my earlier question?
I am begining to fell a right prat.

 

[Big_Spark]

Hippo, have you rechecked all the connection are 100% correct?

Have you checked the control gear in the fittings for any sign of heat stress caused by a fault?

You need to check every connection. Check the terminals in the fitting. If wll your connection are correct, then the fault must be in the fitting or a damaged cable.