Lighting fault help!!!
- Thread starter Diymess
- Start date
What type of lamps(bulbs) are used by the fitting does it actually take a fuse out when the lamps (bulbs) pop or is it a MCB that trips?
How much do you spend on the lamps? (bulbs)
How much do you spend on the lamps? (bulbs)
If you have a problem like this, where bulbs blowing randomly or one by one in a chandelier of 5,
More information is required, i.e. how often do they blow, do they blow all at once! or within a few minutes of one another, what is the bulb rating? have you tried different brand in case the ones you are using could be sub-standard, have you tried lower wattage bulbs just to see if they blow.
you could also measure the mains supply voltage, you might be getting 230V +10% which brings it to a very high level of 245 to 250v!
Some electric companies can have as high a deviation as 15% of the nominal 230V supply for Europe.
secondly, do the bulbs only blow when you first throw your wall switch to ON, or do they blow when they were already lit up and then just blow for no reason.
There could be several other causes, like heavy spikes on your elctric supply, caused by external factors nearby factories etc,
so really to pin point an exact cause is not easy, all tungsten filament bulbs are vulnerable to blowing up on first switching on, if you happen to throw your switch on at the precisely wrong time, this is when the mains voltage is at its peak most, then these bulbs can go bang! in conjunction with slightly higher mains supply voltage, the reason for this is that tungsten filaments have 10 times lower filament resistance when cold or when they are in off state, and so this means a 100 watt bulb would draw 10 times more current, so in other words it will consume 1000watts for a fraction of a second, often enough for the bulb to die a sudden death, especially if they are sub-standard manufacture, under this condition, the filaments react to a sudden thermal shock and viberate so violently that they can just break and cause a short within the bulb that can then draw even greater currents and cause an actual explosion!
and this also explains why for example you have 5 bulbs in a chandalier, and if you throw your switch on and all 5 are rated at say 60Watts, then that is combined load of 300watts and when you first switch them on the load is 10 times more, so you would be looking at 3000watts for a fraction of a second, enough to blow one or two of the bulbs as well as the fuse going off. (MCB)
To avoid this try and use electronic Dimmer switch, this will gently switch them on as dimmers are designed to switch currents on when the mains AC voltage is around the zero crossing of the AC cycle and not when it is at the peak of its full voltage of 230v!
So when a bulb lights up, its resistance increases 10 fold, and so it starts to draw 10 times less current and this is the designed rating or power of the bulb when fully lit at the correct designed voltage which is usually 230V ac.
Paranormal activity would be my last diagnosis! (lol)
More information is required, i.e. how often do they blow, do they blow all at once! or within a few minutes of one another, what is the bulb rating? have you tried different brand in case the ones you are using could be sub-standard, have you tried lower wattage bulbs just to see if they blow.
you could also measure the mains supply voltage, you might be getting 230V +10% which brings it to a very high level of 245 to 250v!
Some electric companies can have as high a deviation as 15% of the nominal 230V supply for Europe.
secondly, do the bulbs only blow when you first throw your wall switch to ON, or do they blow when they were already lit up and then just blow for no reason.
There could be several other causes, like heavy spikes on your elctric supply, caused by external factors nearby factories etc,
so really to pin point an exact cause is not easy, all tungsten filament bulbs are vulnerable to blowing up on first switching on, if you happen to throw your switch on at the precisely wrong time, this is when the mains voltage is at its peak most, then these bulbs can go bang! in conjunction with slightly higher mains supply voltage, the reason for this is that tungsten filaments have 10 times lower filament resistance when cold or when they are in off state, and so this means a 100 watt bulb would draw 10 times more current, so in other words it will consume 1000watts for a fraction of a second, often enough for the bulb to die a sudden death, especially if they are sub-standard manufacture, under this condition, the filaments react to a sudden thermal shock and viberate so violently that they can just break and cause a short within the bulb that can then draw even greater currents and cause an actual explosion!
and this also explains why for example you have 5 bulbs in a chandalier, and if you throw your switch on and all 5 are rated at say 60Watts, then that is combined load of 300watts and when you first switch them on the load is 10 times more, so you would be looking at 3000watts for a fraction of a second, enough to blow one or two of the bulbs as well as the fuse going off. (MCB)
To avoid this try and use electronic Dimmer switch, this will gently switch them on as dimmers are designed to switch currents on when the mains AC voltage is around the zero crossing of the AC cycle and not when it is at the peak of its full voltage of 230v!
So when a bulb lights up, its resistance increases 10 fold, and so it starts to draw 10 times less current and this is the designed rating or power of the bulb when fully lit at the correct designed voltage which is usually 230V ac.
Paranormal activity would be my last diagnosis! (lol)
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