Upgrading 5amp lighting circuit

[gednjoe]

Help.... I seem to have used lots of those R50 halogen light bulbs and my lights trip when the majority of them are on. Now reading up on the cause for the tripping it could be one of 2, 1.bad earth (not breath!) 2. Overloading. I have...20.... R50 bulbs on this one circuit. Can I upgrade the 5amp fuse (and how do I?) which keeps tripping, knowing I have used 1.5 cable for the job? or any other suggestions.....? because it's driving me

 

[breezer]

what watt?

 

[plugwash]

20 50W bulbs on itsw own wouldn't overload the cuircuit but in combination with other stuff you could easilly be goign over

what brand is your CU? are there any spare ways? are there carriers in the spare ways?

 

[Damocles]

Do you mean fuse or mcb? fuses burn out and you have to replace them. mcb trip and you can then turn the switch back on, once you have fixed the problem.

what do you mean you have used 1.5mm. Did you install the whole (new) lighting circuit using 1.5 mm cable, or did you just add to what was there? if you added, what cable was used originally?

What makes you think it might be something to do with earth?

 

[buckbyspark]

PUT A CLAMP METER ON THE CIRCUIT AND SEE WHAT CURRENT IS BEING DRAWN when all the lights are on on that circuit.

 

[gednjoe]

Hey cheers for the replies, anyway the bulbs are 50w and when I installed the fittings I used 1.5 mm cable (heavy domestic) the original wiring being the usual 1mm (is this a problem?) It might be something to do with the earth because these fittings don't need earthed so my earth is "missed out" and the earth from the old fitting is well.... em...taped up! (another problem?)
The trip switch box is a WYLEX and has no spares.

Can anyone smell burning?
I work for the education department hence the Q's to the forum...

 

[Damocles]

You seem to have said that this lighting circuit is operated from a 5A trip switch. Normally fuses are 5A and trip switches are 6A???

Are there any other lights on the same circuit? If so, how many with what sort of bulbs? Can you make an estimate of how much power they are using e.g. 5x100W, 4x60W etc.

Asked about the cable, because the 1mm size will limit the maximum power you can put on the circuit.

I don't understand your bit about missing out the earth. If you have installed some new cables, their earth should be joined up with the earth in the old cables. This sounds like a different problem you need to sort.

If you really have a mcb trip switch,then are you aware that a blown bulb may cause it to trip.

You do mean the individual circuit trip switch, not one RCD trip which covers several circuits?

 

[plugwash]

You seem to have said that this lighting circuit is operated from a 5A trip switch. Normally fuses are 5A and trip switches are 6A???

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/WYB6.html
look carefully (and ignore teh fact it says B6 in the page title)
that breaker clearly has B5 printed on it

does this box have plug in breakers? (wylex standard)
the mention of a 5A breaker makes me think it is

provided your cuircuit it not insanly large (above about 80m iirc) you should be safe uprating to a B10
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/WYB10.html (plug in breaker for wylex standard)

 

[gednjoe]

You seem to have said that this lighting circuit is operated from a 5A trip switch. Normally fuses are 5A and trip switches are 6A???

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/WYB6.html
look carefully (and ignore teh fact it says B6 in the page title)
that breaker clearly has B5 printed on it

does this box have plug in breakers? (wylex standard)
the mention of a 5A breaker makes me think it is

provided your cuircuit it not insanly large (above about 80m iirc) you should be safe uprating to a B10
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/WYB10.html (plug in breaker for wylex standard)

The box I have has plug in breakers and the switch for this circuit clearly has "5AMP" on it. However last night I didn't have a lot of lights on therefore something tells me I might have a different problem. I will upgrade to the higher amp trip, would it be safe to assume that it will continue to trip if I have a different fault and if it stops tripping I have cured it and I will not wake up in the monrning with smoked cornflakes for breakfast? It may of tripped because I have a certain combination of lights on!!!

 

[Damocles]

A 5A breaker should trip if you have maybe 1300W or more of lights turned on at the same time. The more power, the faster it will trip. Just a little overload and it might never trip.

You have just said it tripped with not many lights turned on. This does not sound good. Without more information, it sounds like smoked cornflake time if you just uprate the breaker without finding the reason for the tripping.

If this is an old style plug in MCB which replaces an old plug-in fuse, then you might not be able to get a 10A breaker. Anyway, I would seriously not advise one without an explanation of what is going on.

Can you count up everything which works off this mcb?

Is it possible that something apart from lights has been put on this circuit?

 

[gednjoe]

Oh hell..... I suppose it's time to call out a sparky.
Thanks to all who tried to solve this one but I think its time to depart with that HUGE hourly fee.....
Cheers

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Please let us know what the outcome is.