Bulbs popping

[andy]

personally, i would use a type C if the resistance was low enough to allow it.

 

[jtaunton]

Kind of related to this post - At the weekend I changed the switch in my son's room to a dimmer. Last night the fuse for the upstairs lights had blown and when I replaced it, I found that a different bulb (i.e not the one controlled by the dimmer) had blown.

Might just be coincidence I suppose, but can a bulb going really cause a fuse to blow, or is it more likely to be a dimmer problem. Incidentally, the bulb in the dimmer circuit was originally a long-life one, but I have since changed that as it only really worked in either fully-up or fully-down.

 

[Damocles]

Did you mean fuse? wire fuses are normally very resistant to bulbs going. Mcb on the other hand trip regularly in some circuits when lights fail.

A rewireable fuse failing indicates something more serious,

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Could the dimmer switch have been b*ggered by being used on a low-energy lamp?

 

[jtaunton]

It was a rewirable fuse that went, which is what made me think that it was something more serious than a bulb going too. It was kind-of fudged (previous owner) using several thin strands, but I have replaced it with 5A wire and all seems well.

The low energy bulb does seem to rattle, but still works when I put it into a normal switched circuit.

Dimmer seems to be working too on a standard bulb.

All a bit odd, but fingers crossed.....

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

As far as I am aware, energy saving bulbs and dimmer switches are not very happy bunnies when put together They (the bulbs) are, after all, basically folded mini flourescent, maybe special dimmer is required ( I know you can get normal flourescent tube "gubbins" that can be dimmed though.

 

[bonebill]

I thought all UK supplies were the same? I'm connected to Seeboard, but I can't find the supply voltage on their site...

Every house will be different, and it will also vary at different times of day.

To find out the voltage, you will need to measure it.

Probably the safest way is to get a Plug-In Mains Power & Energy Monitor from Maplin (L61AQ). They are £24.99, but I got one when they were on special at £12.50.

It has a plug on one side and a socket on the other. You can measure voltage (volts), current (amps), power (watts), VA, power factor, frequency, energy (kWh).

(I've currently got one plugged in before my kettle and it's interesting to see just how much the voltage varies each morning. I have seen voltages as low as the high 220s, and as high as the high 240s.)

I read of one case where someone's mains voltage was over 260V. I imagine this would shorten the lifespan of bulbs quite significantly.

 

[plugwash]

It was a rewirable fuse that went, which is what made me think that it was something more serious than a bulb going too. It was kind-of fudged (previous owner) using several thin strands, but I have replaced it with 5A wire and all seems well.

right... so you really have no idea what type of wire that was that blew (i would guess some type of solder or a type of fuse wire intended for use in some kind of equipment)

so really you can't draw any conclusions from the fact that the bodge melted.

 

[AdamW]

The old 5A rewireables do not have this problem because it takes a lot more energy to melt the wire than it does to initiate a trip in a mcb.

I had a 50W halogen blow last month... it took out the 5A rewireable fuse. Unknown to me at the time it also blew something in my PC power supply (which was of course connected on a different circuit), so when I turned on the computer half an hour later a shower of sparks flew out the back, and it also crashed one hard-drive (physically, so I had to throw it out) and frazzed an IDE channel

Moral of the story, if you buy one cheap component (i.e. my PSU) then when it goes it can take out a whole lot of expensive components (hard drive and IDE controller).

I would like housebuilders to start installing higher-rated lighting circuits, since it is not uncommon to have a few hundred watts per room now, even more in some cases.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I had a 50W halogen blow last month... it took out the 5A rewireable fuse. Unknown to me at the time it also blew something in my PC power supply (which was of course connected on a different circuit)

How did it do that?