Several lights in house blowing bulbs continuously

[Taffny]

Hi Guys,

I went to look at house that was blowing bulbs on a couple of the lights (standard pendants). There are 3 that are blowing within a couple of hours of the bulbs being replaced.

There is only 1 light circuit in the house and the rest seem fine. The wiring looks to be around 40 years old.

I have changed the pendants and the switches to eliminate any problems with those. Unfortunately though I recieved a call the next day informing me that the bulbs had blown again on the evening of the same day i had carried out the work.

My thoughts now are that there is a problem in a Junction box that are feeding those lights, obviously this is a pain in the derrier to hunt down.

Is there any thoughts that could save me ripping up the floor boards?

Thanks in advance.

 

[a1]

Is your client using cheap lamps?

 

[ivixxiv]

Hi Guys,I went to look at house that was blowing bulbs on a couple of the lights (standard pendants). There are 3 that are blowing within a couple of hours of the bulbs being replaced.

There is only 1 light circuit in the house and the rest seem fine. The wiring looks to be around 40 years old.

I have changed the pendants and the switches to eliminate any problems with those. Unfortunately though I recieved a call the next day informing me that the bulbs had blown again on the evening of the same day i had carried out the work.

My thoughts now are that there is a problem in a Junction box that are feeding those lights, obviously this is a pain in the derrier to hunt down.

Is there any thoughts that could save me ripping up the floor boards?

Thanks in advance.

Did you not do any tests on the circuit?

 

[Taffny]

The bulbs are multi pack ones and are relatively cheap, but they are the same ones as the rest of the house that are working fine.

I have not carried out the tests yet as it seemed a relatively easy task, in hindsight alarm bells should have rung when there was more than 1 with the fault.

 

[Evans Electric]

Always the same pendants is strange .

Are these GLS lamps or compact fluorescents?

 

[ivixxiv]

Always the same pendants is strange .Are these GLS lamps or compact fluorescents?

It isn't "strange", actually testing the circuit would point to any faults

Sorry for piling in on my first posts but stuff like this annoys the hell out of me, where sparks first point of call is to just change pendants/switches, it's lazy

Invariably your called out again as the shiny new stuff you've fitted hasn't fixed the problem so you have to charge the customer ex amount more to properly check the problem or take a hit

Nice forum btw :thumbsup:

 

[lineman]

So what faults on the wring would actually cause a lamp to blow? None that I'm aware of in a domestic situation. Tripping faults?yes lamps blowing?no. What testing would you have carried out and what results would you expect to see on our standard tests with a blowing lamp job? IMHO this job sounds like either an unlucky coincidence or very cheap lamps.

 

[Evans Electric]

I do indeed find it "strange" that the same fittings are blowing lamps , if the voltage was high they would blow all over the circuit , I can't get away from the "cheap lamp answer" TBH .

What tests are you thinking of 4 9 11 5 ?

 

[Taffny]

Sorry for the delay getting back to you I was on football duties with my son.

The bulbs are gls. For bulbs to go after a few hours seems a bit unlikely however cheap. They was fine when I was there but blew in evening.

I will check the voltage after work hours to get an idea if the voltage rises, carry out some r1 & rn tests to see if there are some high resistance on the conductors! But why just 3?

I'll keep you posted.

 

[Ali]

Are the lamps kept in a nice freezing shed then put in the fitting and turned on straight away? I'm sure that can't be good for the lamp.

 

[Robin Spark]

Too many innuendos form Ali's post, all I can say is I agree and make sure to treat the lamps like a lady and warm them up slowly before turning them on :innocent

 

[batty]

One lighting circuit is there a lot of other lighting on circuit?

 

[Doc Hudson]

The bulbs are gls. For bulbs to go after a few hours seems a bit unlikely however cheap. They was fine when I was there but blew in evening.

GLS? I have seen batches of cheap GLS bulbs fail in unreasonably short timescales. combinations of poor manhandling between supplier to retail outlet. Poor internal joints between the filament and the Bayonet/ES connections. Cheap quality materials in the filament itself. Due to the increase legislation to fit energy saving lamps I think the quality of GLS lamps has dropped considerably. Are they supposed long life lamps or standard 1000 hour?

Doc H.

 

[Taffny]

There are about 10 lights on the circuit batty, not really overloaded.

Every thing is still origional from the rewire in the 70's

I will take advise on the quality of the bulbs, as there seems to be a lot of opinion on here that they could be at fault.

Thanks for all those with constructive opinion.

 

[Theorysparky]

Dimmers ?????

 

[ProDave]

I'm sure this is a job all electricians dread

"my bulbs keep blowing, can you have a look"

It's surprising though, just by having a look and saying "I found a loose connection and I've tightened it" that the problem then goes away (even if you didn't really find a loose connection)

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

When I were a young lad just at the back-end of my school life and starting work life...

We (me mates & their mates) would have parties at each other

 

[a1]

Mrs Admin took the little Admins to visit her Mum, in the Valleys - She came home saying that her 3 lamp (bulb)* pendant keeps blowing 2 lamps (bulbs)*.

* = for the benefit of DIY Enthustiats and SEO.

 

[Evans Electric]

When I were a young lad just at the back-end of my school life and starting work life...We (me mates & their mates) would have parties at each other

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

That is exactly my thoughts on failing lamps Specs, I don't see our basic tests showing anything that would cause GLS lamps to blow .I can think of the following :-

1) Cheapo lamps from Poundland etc.

2) Excessive heat .

3) Excessive heat within an enclosed fitting .

4) GLS lamps mounted sideways don't seem to last as long .

5) The very small lamps like 40/ 60w candle don't last very long

6) Fireglowlamps don't seem to last very long.

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 11:55 ---------- Previous post was made at 11:50 ----------

Two points about multi-lamp fittings are :-

1) The lamps are often sticky uppers instead of sticky downers.

2) Having more than one lamp gives the illusion that they keep failing because there are more of them .

Fireglow lamps used to be longer life jobbies IIRC....

guess they didn't make enough money off them..

Sticky uppers and sticky downers????

you still on about lamps or have we digressed onto body parts???

Actually the direction of the lamp will have an impact on how it can dissipate its heat away!

Just as a side thought