Multiple blown GU10s

[ericmark]

You are correct, grease on quartz, dimming quartz, using without glass to stop harmful rays, but all seem to get ignored. And I have seen wagons with broken head light glasses where the quartz bulb is encrusted with mud and still working.

Had you asked me 3 years ago I would have said I will never use quartz bulbs again, but in this house had to fit them or at least one, as the smart switch would not work with all LED bulbs, did finally find LED bulbs that did work, but for a time had to return to quartz.

I do use smart switches, smart relays, smart sockets, smart socket adaptors, smart bulbs, and smart TRV heads, as to if really required harder to answer, I was able to turn on the AC an hour before coming home yesterday, and can turn on landing lights by simply saying "hey google turn on landing light", but I have also had to remove smart light switches, and sockets which have failed, and the house is mine, so no landlord to tell me what to do.

My daughter now has worked out, turn lights off/on and it cancels a off command to smart bulb from phone, but my wife programs the zigbee, I am just a user, so if she died I would have a problem.

Also since my house I have fitted a SPD which should stop spikes killing the smart bulbs, but in rented you have not got the right to insist things like a surge protection device is fitted, so it's a cross your fingers job.

 

[SUNRAY]

as a landlord myself of a modest 4 properties; I ensure all lights are working when a tenant moves in and my rental agreement says they are responsible for replacements. To date all fittings are standard fittings apart from some bathrooms, which are not replaceable bulbs.
The agreement indicates property shold be vacated in the same condition they find it... some hopes!!

 

[securespark]

again?

Kind Regards, John

I spout rubbish often! If you could search for just a ".", you'd be surprised.

 

[jado84]

My daughter now has worked out, turn lights off/on and it cancels a off command to smart bulb from phone, but my wife programs the zigbee, I am just a user, so if she died I would have a problem.

If you're so inclined, there are ways of bypassing the physical switch so that the smart bulb remains powered permanently and the lightswitch acts as a "remote", but it certainly might count as over-engineering!

Philips Hue make one (wall switch module, put inside the box alongside the switch), and there are a number of DIY options. However DIY gets complicated quickly!

With luck, the issues around complexity and incompatibility amongst different brands of smart home gear (even those using the same protocols, if you're not willing to go down the Home Assistant rabbit hole) is being resolved with the new Matter protocol being released towards the end of the year. How far manufacturers are willing to go to update previous lines of products to support Matter is anyone's guess, however. Plus, of course, the ever-relevant XKCD 927.

 

[ericmark]

The relay does allow on/off switching either with phone, tablet, or switch. The switch is extra low voltage, and it does not matter if you switch on or off, change of state will swap on/off of relay.

I fitted one into a rather large chandelier, or more to point my son did it for me, but not really an option with a rented house, I remember some years ago my son was working on a council house refurbishment project, and some lovely chandeliers had been fitted, not only did my son have to remove them and replace with standard ceiling rose, but the tenant got charged to swap it back, and the chandeliers ended up in the skip.

I really did feel sorry for them. One like shown is not cheap, I would not want to loose it. So swapping bulbs easy enough, swapping switches or light fittings is not really an option with a rented property.

I remember visiting some one who had rented out their old house, and bought a new one, and I was teasing the young lad a bit, and said but Alexa will not turn your lights on/off, my Google Mini does, yes it will was answer, and he voices the command, lights did not go off, he than asked them to go back on, and I said see does not work, Oh not in this house, but it did turn them off/on/off in last house.

Goodness knows what the tenant thinks when the lights start switching on/off on their own? But this is the problem with Smart devices, who can control them? Every so often Google Nest Mini will say something like I didn't get that, but we had not asked it to do anything.

 

[jado84]

Goodness knows what the tenant thinks when the lights start switching on/off on their own? But this is the problem with Smart devices, who can control them? Every so often Google Nest Mini will say something like I didn't get that, but we had not asked it to do anything.

Oh we have the same issue, I put some WiFi bulbs in my room in my parents house alongside their much nicer Zigbee-based lights, and somehow it has linked my lights 300 miles away with theirs. You can delete them from the Google home app, but they re-appear every few months. Maddening!

As an update to the issue in this thread, it turns out the lightswitch I thought drove the four dead GU10s feeds a dimmer unit buried somewhere behind a cupboard (I know!). I've changed the GU10s to new ones, and ordered some dimmable ones just to check, but given the lights aren't working even when the dimmer is on full my suspicion is that the dimmer unit itself has failed. Rather irritating I broke my nice multimeter just before the move and threw my junky one out!

Minded also to ask the landlord for a copy of the EICR....

 

[ericmark]

Politics is not my best skill, you need to consider how the landlord will react, it may be he is happy for you to modernise the home, but I do not have that skill.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

So if a standard incandescent bulb is rated at 230 volts and your actual voltage is 253 volts (+10% / –6% tolerance), that could be why they are blowing.

230v lamps should not be on sale for normal use in the UK, they will not survive for long.

 

[JohnW2]

230v lamps should not be on sale for normal use in the UK, they will not survive for long.

I'm not sure what you mean by "230V lamps". Ones sold in the UK are obviously used with a nominal supply voltage of 230V, although will hopefully be such that they will have a reasonable life with a supply voltage anywhere in the 'permitted range' in the UK.

However, it is inevitable that, no matter what voltage they are designed for, any traditional incandescent bulb (and quite probably many LEDs) will have a longer life at 216.2V than at 130V, and a longer life with 230V than with 253V. Halogens are a bit more complicated, in that reducing voltage reduces the envelope temperature and hence may, in some situations, decrease life.

Kind Regards, John

 

[jado84]

Politics is not my best skill, you need to consider how the landlord will react, it may be he is happy for you to modernise the home, but I do not have that skill.

Oh 100%, given I've just moved in I don't want to wind him up! By the same token, I have no light in half of my living room regardless of what bulb goes in so he'll need to sort it one way or another.

Yeah, tempting as it is to have a go myself I'll leave it to the pros paid for by my rent. Never done anything in a domestic setting and know I'd worry about screwing it up and putting the other inhabitants of the block in danger without having someone to check it, tempting as putting PowerCon on all of my appliances is

Then again I suppose some might consider changing the lightbulbs "doing electrics"? I don't but hey ho.

 

[ericmark]

230v lamps should not be on sale for normal use in the UK, they will not survive for long.

I have found marked 220, 230, 240 volt with all but fluorescent makes little diffrence, there clearly will be some, but only with fluorescent with wire wound ballast is there really a marked diffrence with a 20 volt variation.

As to not winding the landlord up, problem is one can say the same thing in essence, but slight diffrence in tone, can change the way it is received.

Seem to be having problems with lights, is this and ongoing problem, may be all that is required.

I have always owned my own house, but went to see council over uncles council flat, while waiting I could not believe some of the jobs guys were being sent to do, turn the adjusting screw on the loo ball cock for example. To me more hassle phoning council than turning the screw.

Lights today however have changed, I would go and buy a pack of assorted bulbs 40, 60, and 100 watt from the supermarket for a few quid, changing on average one a fortnight, now paying £6 for one bulb, and expect it to last for years. And in the main they do.

However old house after some major work, new chandeliers and 16 new SES golf CFL bulbs, and within a year over half failed, replaced no more problems, but same house son now has, and around 24 GU10 bulbs fitted in kitchen, and again high failure rate.

If all have failed same day would have blamed a surge, but it was over some time, so was it caused by surges? Is it bulb design? Seems likely some can survive surges better than others, and this house with a surge protection device (SPD) fitted, very few failures.

Since I own the house £30 for a SPD seems good insurance against likely damage caused by not having one, but with rented property two diffrent people paying.

I suppose on selling this house I could slide out the plug in chandeliers and take them with me, would be rather sneaky, but since plugged in, not fixtures. But on buying this house even the cooker came with house.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I'm not sure what you mean by "230V lamps". Ones sold in the UK are obviously used with a nominal supply voltage of 230V, although will hopefully be such that they will have a reasonable life with a supply voltage anywhere in the 'permitted range' in the UK.

Obviously you are well aware that voltage rating of lamps is quite critical to an incandescent lamps longevity? A 230v lamp, on an actual 240v supply will have a severally reduced working life. Yet some sellers seem to not be aware, or care about this and sell 230v lamps intended for use in the EU. I once fell for it with some oven lamps and failed to check the actual voltage marked on the lamps, which needed replacing after just a few weeks use.

 

[ericmark]

Obviously you are well aware that voltage rating of lamps is quite critical to an incandescent lamps longevity? A 230v lamp, on an actual 240v supply will have a severally reduced working life. Yet some sellers seem to not be aware, or care about this and sell 230v lamps intended for use in the EU. I once fell for it with some oven lamps and failed to check the actual voltage marked on the lamps, which needed replacing after just a few weeks use.

Think you need to update, we had harmonization, we dropped 10 volt, they went up 10 volt, it was 220 volt for most of Europe and 240 volt here, but not any longer.

When we first changed many areas were within the 207 to 253 volt limit 95% of the time, so the DNO did not actually change the tapping on the step down transformers, but with solar panels and EV charging points both which auto disconnect if the voltage is outside the limits, the DNO have been forced to correct the supplies, so in the main now we actually get 230 volt.

There was a point where we used 250 volt, and it did vary area to area, I remember as a lad on holiday it was 110 volt DC. 1935 the National grid was born, and Abergeirw finally got connected on 19 December 2008, we have not been very fast rolling it out. The UK Government agreed to harmonization at 230V on 9th March 1993. So I would not be surprised to find the odd pocket still on 240 volt.

 

[winston1]

so in the main now we actually get 230 volt.

Maybe in the small part of Wales where you are, but anywhere I've checked (SW London, SE London, Isle of Wight) it is around 242volts. At this very moment I'm getting 239.7v in SW London.

I agree in much of Europe it has risen to just over 230v. One exception is Budapest which was still 220v last year. Going tp Paris next month so will check there. Last time I was in Paris almost 50 years ago it was 127v so I guess it has changed.

 

[ericmark]

230 volt is the nominal voltage, we all know range is 207 to 253, so all items marked 230 volt should be OK at 207 to 253 volt.