Question regarding lighting rings

[Chelsea_Joe]

Hi all,

Two days ago a fuse blew when turning on the kitchen lights. I am pretty sure the reason it blew was that the wattage of the lightbulbs was too high for the light itself. (They only lasted 7 days before blowing). Anyway, I replaced the fuse (it was a 5amp) but the lights didn't turn on, either upstairs or downstairs.

So I am pretty sure the lighting ring has blown. The most likely place that the ring failed would be the kitchen light that cauesd the fuse to go? Is it that simple? Now, is this an easy thing to fix for a realtive novice, or would I be best getting a qualified Spark out to have a look?

The house is c1900, but the wiring was redone about 15 years ago I think. We still have the old style fuse board.

Help and advice gratefully received.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I would say that given that you think your lighting circuit is a ring (it isn't) and that you've knowingly overloaded a light fitting by putting bulbs of too high a wattage in it, that you have neither the knowledge nor the attitude to fix this yourself.

Count yourself lucky that the fuse did what it should, and stopped your house from burning down, and get an electrician in.

 

[Chelsea_Joe]

I would say that given that you think your lighting circuit is a ring (it isn't) and that you've knowingly overloaded a light fitting by putting bulbs of too high a wattage in it, that you have neither the knowledge nor the attitude to fix this yourself.

Count yourself lucky that the fuse did what it should, and stopped your house from burning down, and get an electrician in.

Nice board you have here. There was I thinking this is a place to find help.

Ban_all_sheds, you have a charming attitude you have for yourself there. Your Mother must be very proud of you. Thank you so much for your pearls of wisdom.

I put two errors in my post. Firstly I meant cicuit rather than ring. Secondly, the light was not "knowingly" overloaded, it was a simple error in bulb purchasing.

I must admit, your warning about my house burning down was wonderfully recieved. Thank you so much. Of course I would knowingly put my family at risk. What sort of muppet are you?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Well - OK - maybe I overreacted with the "lighting ring" thing, and maybe I dashed off the reply a little quickly - I don't think I was wrong in my message content (which has to be blunt - I don't think you should try to fix this), but maybe I should have taken more care to soften the style in which the message was delivered.

But I'm not sure that fitting the wrong bulb(s) because you failed to pay enough attention to what you were doing is any better than doing it on purpose. From your description of the fault, it sounds as if what you have done is to damage (probably via overheating a fitting) a cable in your lighting circuit so badly that it no longer works. And if you can do that by not paying attention to what you were doing, then I'm not sure that anybody should advise you to replace the cable yourself.

I thought I had answered your question - get an electrician in.

And in answer to your final question, I am not the sort of muppet who negligently fits a bulb that runs so hot that it melts the insulation on a cable which leads to a short circuit.

 

[Big_Spark]

Chelsea, to a certain degree I am with Ban-all-sheds on this.

I will accept that your use of the word ring when describing the circuit was inadvertent, but I must question your electrical knowledge.

Point 1: You did not state what type of Light fitting you have in your kitchen.

Point 2: Your Upstairs and Downstairs lighting circuits should be seperate so this could mean dodgy wiring or a problem in the board.

Point 3: The chances of you actually overloading a 5A fuse and cauing it to blow using the "wrong bulb" are so miniscule as to be able to be discounted.

A 5A BS3036 (rewirable) fuse will not blow until about 12A passes through it..this is the main reason why they were banned in favout of MCB's. Even if every one of you pendants had a 200W lamp in it, you would still need 14 lights to be on simultaneously in order to blow the fuse...and you CANNOT buy 200W GLS lamps..largest is 150W and then only from wholesalers.

Do you see where I am going with this?

Pick up the phone book, look up electricians and phone one.

You will likely create a bigger problem if you attempt to sort this yourself. If you had the knowledge and skills to do it, you would not be asking the question.

 

[Chelsea_Joe]

Thanks for the replies.

I do apologies to all for over-reacting in my reply to ban-all-sheds. I had a bad morning at work, and that post was the proverbial straw. I appreciate that this board must get it's fair share of budding DIYers, and you were quite right in warning me off doing anything myself.

An electrician is booked!

FWL_engineer, thanks very much for your post, it was very informative. "A 5A BS3036 (rewirable) fuse will not blow until about 12A passes through it..this is the main reason why they were banned in favout of MCB's". WOW. That is quite an eye-opener. I can really see the electrician recommending a rewire, or at least replace my old fuseboard with a new consumer unit.

Anyway, sorry if I made a bad first impression here, I hope no hard feelings.

 

[securespark]

FWL

3036's are not banned.

They are alive and well

I went to the Wylex factory in Wythenshawe and those boards and still selling very very well. the factory chucked out 32,000 of them while I was there!!! Despite being originally released onto the market in 1951!!!!

 

[il78]

I am with securespark on this one......

 

[securespark]

FWL

Actually, I'm not being snotty, but it's not your night.

I've just looked up a really old catalogue and they used to make (admittedly eons ago) 200W GLS's.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Just did a search for 200W GLS, UK sites, - AltaVista threw up 88 hits....