lights keep blowing

[hothothot]

The lights in my flat have been tripping out repeatedly over the last week. I have 12 volt halogen lights dotted throughout the property

I've isolated the problem to two control panels with tripple switches - one for the hall way (two bulbs), one for the kitchen (5 bulbs) and one for the living room (5 bulbs).

Initially, I noticed that all the lights in the flat went out if I pressed two switches at the same time. Then after one of the bulbs blew in the living room yesterday, all seemed to be okay. I thought perhaps the bulb was faulty and that the problem was now solved.

Then this evening, when I pressed one switch, there was a loud boom as the lights tripped throughout the property again.

I've had the property for a year but this has never happened before. The only thing that I've done recently is put fibreglass insulation in the loft (above the ceiling). I've laid the insulation over the unseen part of the lighting mechanism. Is this causing the lights to trip or is it something else? Any ideas?

 

[Steve]

Halogen lights get hot. They need to vent. You may have caused damage to the fittings.

You may have also damaged the transformers by covering them too. They also get hot. If you have a laptop, you'll know the type of heat by touching its power supply.

The cables may also have been damaged.

I'd get up there with a dust mask and start rummaging, looking for obvious signs of damage.

Also, an electrician will be able to assess the extent of the damage using an insulation tester. This device shoves high voltage up your circuits and measures how much electricity is leaking.

 

[hairyben]

Is it only when you bang on two+ circuits at a time, and not when you switch individually?

If so I wonder if you've got old wirewound transformers (heavy old things) and not electronic transformers- they have a high surge current when switched on and enough of them switched together will knock out MCB's.

if I'm right, solution is to change transformers to electronics, or fit soft-start electronic dimmers or just switch them on with a short pause between circuits...