Bulbs keep Blowing

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A couple of my light bulbs keep blowing (Kitchen and bathroom mainly)...is it down to pure condensation in these areas or could it be an electical issue.

I also have an old fuse board - whats the cost of getting these changed to a new fuse board with breakers, etc.

Thanks
 
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WKayani said:
whats the cost of getting these changed to a new fuse board with breakers, etc.

depends where you are and what is involved. for example i could say £XX, only to find all your cables are rubber.

best thing get several quotes
 
breezer said:
WKayani said:
whats the cost of getting these changed to a new fuse board with breakers, etc.

depends where you are and what is involved. for example i could say £XX, only to find all your cables are rubber.

best thing get several quotes

£XX er you mean £20? is that all? sheesh!! :eek:


VA292.JPG
:D
 
old switches seem to be quite a common cause of premature bulb failure.

afaict changing a consumer unit is usually in the hundreds of pounds but there may be other things in your house that need dealing with first possiblly even a full rewire may be needed.
 
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Seem to remember something about partial short to the fitting that would cause bulbs to blow,or loose connections.
To verify I turned up the following on the web,hope it may be of use.


There are a few reasons bulbs can blow, the major one being cheaper bulbs. The elements in cheap bulbs are much thinner and any surge of power, however slight, simply breaks them. Always go for expensive light bulbs, its cheaper in the long run.

A loose connection in the lamp holder can also cause bulbs to blow. This is because the circuit is not completed as tightly as it could be and the electricity may have cause to "arc" or jump across the contact, rather than simply flowing through it. When this happens it produces more heat in the fitting than is expected or catered for by the bulb, and the bulb can blow.
The same can happen if the spring loaded connection in the bulb holder is slightly loose. This will cause electricity to arc across the contact, cause too much heat and blow the bulb. This can very often be diagnosed by looking at the contact on the bottom of the bulb to see if it is pitted. Arcing electricity effectively melts the metal it is arcing onto ( This is how arc welding works) so if the bulb contact is being subjected to arcing, tiny little indentations occur, called pitting.

So, three things to look into if your bulbs keep blowing. Your bulb supplier, The wire connections inside your bulb holder, and if the spring loaded connectors are working properly inside the bulb holder. As a last resort you can also check the tightness of the connections in your switch.
 
What type are the lamps and what make are they ?
 
Light blubs used to have a conceiled 'fuse' or 'weak link' with in them that would open as the bulb 'blew', this is not present in newer, cheaper bulbs.

I have seen several plug top fuses blow on table lamps, and a few HRC and even 3036 fuses blow when a bulb fails.
 
another case for even new lamps blowing is the actual point at which you switch them on, If the AC is at peak voltage at the moment the lamp circuit is made then then the mechanical shock to the filament can weaken or blow it this is why there are devices which utilise a system called "zero crossing" available which only turn the circuit on at the zero crossing point of the sine wave and stop the shock effect,
 
that could also explain the "old switches" issue

if a switch is going to arc before making proper contact it is most likely to do it at the peak of the sine wave......

btw what is the inductance of lightbulb filiments like. by calculations based on the off resistance (ie as measured with a multimeter) i put the inrush current for 2*500w mains halogens at borderline for takeing out a C6 at switch on yet in practice almost everyone who has mentioned problems with 2x500W halogens on a B6 has not reported any trouble on moving to a C6. Im wondering if inductance is also having a significant effect on the inrush current.
 
The inductance in filament lamps is so negligble that you can call them resistive loads
 
negligable.....

negligable in the steady state operation yes.
switch on is very different conditions though.
 
Thought we were talking Inductance? not Resistance, perhaps you are getting confused with Impedance?
Inductance is negligible with filament lamps whether on or off. Regarding resistance, it will be inversely proportional to the temperature (Temperature Coefficient of Resistance)
 
to say that inductance is negligable means little

negligable is a comparative thing.

now im sure the inductive reactance at 50hz is negligable compared to the steady state resistance.

however that same inductance may be relavent to the switch on behaviour (nowhere seems to really document the switch on behaviour of bulbs)
 
In electronics with very small values the inductance of a filament lamp may be significant but when talking of electrics and the values associated, the inductance is so small that it can be ignored. Unless of course you have vast quantities of them. :LOL:
In your original reply you mention inductance in your second reply you mention inductive reactance two different things the reactance is measured in Ohms not Henrys
 

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