Halogen bulbs keep blowing?

G

growla666

I've had my single light fitting in the dining room replaced with 8 x 50w halogen downlighters. I have also had a 400w dimmer fitted to control them. In addition I've got 4 x 50w halogens in the bathroom plus a 3way light in the kitchen. The problem is that the bulbs keep blowing, and when I have the kitchen lights, the bathroom lights and the dining room lights all on the fuse trips! I've checked and its a 5A fuse on the fusepanel. I'm thinking that the extra lights is overloading the circuit which is why I've got througn so many halogne bulbs and have had to replace the dimmer? Can I just upgrade the fuse on the fusebox to 10A or is there something more I need to do? Help gratefully received.

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By the way the fuse for the lights on my mcb has a button on it, the halogens are 240v mains, 50W jobs not the ones with transformers.

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moderator

please note 10a
 
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dimmers need downrating with used with halogen bulbs i believe, by as much as 50%, so that dimmer you have might only good for 200w of halogen load. This is why the bulbs and dimmers keep failing.

I am not surprised you need a dimmer with all that light there. Consider replacing the bulbs with lower wattage. You don't mention what wattage the kitchen light is, but, yes, you may well be overloading the circuit. Do not replace the circuit breaker. Add up the maximum load on the circuit and if it is more than 1150w, you should consider splitting the circuit into two.

does the button say test on it? If not, its just an MCB.
 
You will need a 1000w dimmer for the 8x50w lamps
you can swap the mcb for a 10A if the circuit is wired in 1.5 T+E
 
Twist 'n' Tape said:
you can swap the mcb for a 10A if the circuit is wired in 1.5 T+E
and what about the ELI? how do you know it will be adequate with a 10A instead od a 6A
 
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andrew2022 said:
Twist 'n' Tape said:
you can swap the mcb for a 10A if the circuit is wired in 1.5 T+E
and what about the ELI? how do you know it will be adequate with a 10A instead od a 6A

Judging by the nature of the post, I guessed growla666 was not in the trade, I wasnt suggesting that he go straight ahead and swap the MCB without performing the necessary tests. And it seemed pretty pointless talking to him about Earth Loop Impedance and disconnection times. I assumed that he would be pleased to know that nothing more than the mcb may need to be replaced. And in my experience, ive not come accross a domestic lighting circuit wired in 1.5mm T+E that cannot meet a 5 second disconection time on a 10A mcb.
 
Twist 'n' Tape said:
andrew2022 said:
Twist 'n' Tape said:
you can swap the mcb for a 10A if the circuit is wired in 1.5 T+E
and what about the ELI? how do you know it will be adequate with a 10A instead od a 6A

Judging by the nature of the post, I guessed growla666 was not in the trade, I wasnt suggesting that he go straight ahead and swap the MCB without performing the necessary tests. And it seemed pretty pointless talking to him about Earth Loop Impedance and disconnection times. I assumed that he would be pleased to know that nothing more than the mcb may need to be replaced. And in my experience, ive not come accross a domestic lighting circuit wired in 1.5mm T+E that cannot meet a 5 second disconection time on a 10A mcb.

like you said - you guess he wasnt in the trades. so he would assume from your post he could change the MCB to 10A and be done with it. you didnt warn him of anything else he would have to do before puttin in a 10A instead of 6A

and ive never came accross a circuit that cant meet the disconnection times, but it could happen, and it would be him it happens to
 
andrew2022 said:
like you said - you guess he wasnt in the trades. so he would assume from your post he could change the MCB to 10A and be done with it. you didnt warn him of anything else he would have to do before puttin in a 10A instead of 6A

and ive never came accross a circuit that cant meet the disconnection times, but it could happen, and it would be him it happens to

Fair enough Andrew, I was in too much of a hurry in the first reply, I should have given the warning as you say.

Consider myself told off ! :oops:
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moderator

edited to correct quote
 
using a C6 or B10 shouldn't be a problem for earth fault loop on a normal domestic install even with 1mm cable.
 
Wow,

After the 2nd reply you guys might as well have been talking swahili!! I'm definitely not in the trade...so can you guys translate for me? Thanks 4 your answers, looks like I might need an electrician then?

Growla
 
Btw I've gone and ordered 10 x 35w halogens off ebay and will replace the dining room lights wiht these for starters....
 
growla666 said:
Btw I've gone and ordered 10 x 35w halogens off ebay and will replace the dining room lights wiht these for starters....

well wait till you do that before changing the MCB
 
problem here is you cant dim halogen lamps & expect them to have the same life .
This is due to the principles of the halogen lamp, ie they are designed to work at "overrating" ie other words the lamp is meant to be run at a power high enough to burn out a normal tungsten bulb but due to the design they are meant to work at a temperature that will actually burn off some of the tungsten filaments atoms so they will adhere to the quartz envelope. Because of the high temperatures the atoms will then leave the quartz & return to the filament.
If you run these lamps at a lower ( dimmed) voltage this effect will not take place & therefore the bulb will fail in a shorter time.
There seems to be quite a few so called "experts" on this forum who quite simply do NOT understand the science of things but because they have a C&G in making tea & brushing up, consider themselves to be "above" anyone else here!
My advice is simple to ignore them.
 
Btw I've gone and ordered 10 x 35w halogens off ebay and will replace the dining room lights wiht these for starters....

There's the reason why your bulbs keep blowing, right there.

Use a reputable make like Osram or Philips and go for a high average lifetime one. If you buy cheap, you'll get cheap.

Also, think about this.

In the old days there was one bulb in each room so each house had (say) 10 bulbs. GLS lamps were surprisingly rugged.
If one bulb a year blew you would not worry about it.
Now you've got lots and lots of bulbs that are very very hot and delicate.
Even a smear from a greasy finger can cause death to a halogen lamp.

Better to put back the lights that you had and replaster over that swiss cheese ceiling.
 

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