Florescent light causes ceiling fan/light to flicker.

[3vo]

Hi guys,

First post here, I hope someone can help identify what may be wrong before I call out a sparky.

Recently I had a ceiling fan/light unit fitted in my bedroom. The bedroom light and fan work fine however whenever the living room lights are operated (either switched on or off) it seems to cause the power to the bedroom ceiling fan/light unit to momentarily stop and flicker for less than a second.

I have double checked the wiring for both the bedroom and living room lights which seem fine. About 8 years ago my entire house was rewired and the lighting circuit for the top floor of my house is connected to the same circuit on the RCD box. This is for about 5 rooms and includes the bedroom and living room.

I currently don’t have a voltmeter to test the current, but today I replaced the ceiling fan with a standard light bulb and found this was NOT affected by the living room light. Also no other room lights seem to be affected by this, nor do they cause the bedroom ceiling fan/light to flicker.
The living room has a standard 58w T8 florescent tube fitted.

Any ideas?

 

[kbdiy]

To start with I'd get rid of the fluorescent light in the lounge - that has to be the worst lighting solution for a lounge you can imagine!

 

[3vo]

To start with I'd get rid of the fluorescent light in the lounge - that has to be the worst lighting solution for a lounge you can imagine!

Thank you for your helpful, irreverent post..

 

[danswift]

If there are 2 separate circuits you could try splitting them up by adding another MCB to the consumer unit.

My knowledge is a little rusty but someone correct me if I'm wrong here - The fluorescent uses a capacitor/starter and this works by creating a voltage spike, as voltage increases the current will decrease. So this could be why your ceiling fan/light is flickering when you turn on the fluorescent.

One way to prove this theory would be to swap the fluorescent out for a standard pendant and see if that cures it.

 

[madman41]

Is the florescent light an old one? Could have old magnetic ballast in there, changing to an newer electric ballast may cure this problem.

 

[3vo]

The florescent light is pretty new (about 2 months old) from wickes.

I'll try swapping it out for a standard pendent and see if the problem still occurs.