Light bulbs keep blowing

by **activityandy** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:50 am

I have a room with 10 wall lights and if all the bulbs are working, one will blow within a day. If I replace it, then another will blow within a day. It seems that if one bulb is out then its ok, no more will blow.

Am I overloading the lighting circuit?
Will using lower wattage (energy saving) bulbs solve this issue?

I feel like I'm going through more bulbs than Blackpool Pleasure Beach at the moment!

by **kbrownie** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:56 am

I think you could be overloading circuit especailly if other lights are also on the circuit. It's usually best to run only 12 lights per circuit a maximum of value of 100 watts per light which would give you a total of 1200 watts divided by 230 volts would equal 5.22 amps. So if your fuse rating is below this total the fuse would break. So if you had above the recomended power values it would take out a 6 amp breaker.
KB

by **SparkyPaul** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 2:22 pm

doubt it is anything to do with the load as the load usually brings the voltage down
if you overload the circuit then the mcb should trip or fuse pop
are you using decent branded lamps?
Compact Fluorescent energy saving lamps should last longer and will use less energy

by **Nonplumber** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:58 pm

I have a similar problem. Got two double wall lights and 2 ceiling fittings each with 5 bulbs so 14 bulbs on the circuit. Cheap bulbs last 3-4 weeks before they start failing. Expensive low-energy types last a few months - not years as claimed on the box. 5a Fuse has never blown.

by **kbrownie** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 12:07 pm

Yes your right that cheaper lamps do blow quicker than more expensive ones.
As the fillament inside the lamp is the weakess point of the circuit this will fail before a BS1361 or a BS3036 fuse, but if you had MCBs installed instead of a fuse the breaker genrally trips too. That was my point!
KB