Bulbs in my house constantly blowing, any ideas why?.?

Are they market stall specials?
I have 20 GU10 in my kitchen and I have monitored their failure rate for almost 2 years now and I have found no pattern at all. I only use quality brands so my conclusion is that it's all down to luck.

No they are good ones... We are right next to the sub station dunno if that makes a difference..

Weston,

Mains voltage?

They don't like the cold these days so it could be that, and quality is poor in general. Try installing switches which make the lights come on from dim, such as the MK dimmer switches (££) or dimmer switches which you have to turn down to turn them off as opposed to the ones where you hit the button and then turn the knob. I had the same and have not lost a lamp since making the changes about two years ago.

Failing that.....let us all say it together.....Neutral fault.

Zs

Hi Westonelectrical,
Are the bulds blowing in every room or only in some rooms?
Because in my house we had 3 mettalic fitting and the bulds keep blowing.
I replaced the fitting with a different type and the problem solveRegards
Paul

It is mainly the kitchen lights, and landing light, kitchen are down lights landing is a chandler type thing

Mains voltage 250v today

Say away from supermarket lamps,

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Dougie
Power Plus Electrical.co.uk

My mission is to live as long as possible......so far so good!

Towards the top end of the range, but perfectly acceptable.

Regards,

Alan.

Halogen bulbs are sensitive to vibration, and may blow quickly in places where ceiling in exposed to vibrations - for example if you have a room above your ceiling and someone walks, wooden construction of the ceiling moves up and down. We had some problems in the past. Bulbs are also blow quicker in cold wheather, and soft start dimmer may extend lifetime of the bulb. Another solution is LED lighting. If you are using mains hologen gu10 bulbs, you can easily switch to LED, which are resistant to vibration.

Hope this helps

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Max

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Dimmable LED bulbs

How many and how often? We tend to have many more lamps these days, so even if they had the same failure rate, you'd notice a blown one more often. E.g. if one lamp has 1000hrs life = one blown every 1000 hours - say about once in 9 months at 4 hours a day. 10 lamps in a room and the average would be one blown about every three and a half weeks.

As well as the good theories above, I've been told a number of times after working on a circuit that 'so-and-so fitting used to blow lamps all the time but since you fixed it it's been fine for months'. I can't account for it as all I'd done (that might affect the light in question) was to re-make a joint box or replace a switch. Maybe I'd check for loose connections or a dodgy switch.

- Andy.

I can neve quite get why people think lamps blowing is to do with dodgy connections. If the connections were dodgy you would see lamps flickering. I reckon lamps blowing, or appearing to blow, prematurely, is due to :-

Carp lamps,

Fittings that retain too much heat, like downlights and decorative fittings

Frequent switching

Oh, and people pogoing while listening to punk rock in there bedrooms

This is especially true of the mains powered halogens, as their filaments are extremely thin. The ELV halogens are considerably more robust.

Regarding the chandalier with the candle lamps, I am assuming they are fitted "cap downwards" rather than at the top. A lot of the candle lamps are marked on their boxes that the should not be used with the cap at the top, as this causes them to overheat, leading to early failure.

Regards,

Alan.

I thought candle lamps were designed to have the connection at the bottom with the glass bowl on top. Like a candle in fact. Or is that what you meant?

LoL - that'll be the B side to Ca Plane Pour Moi - you've just got to love Plastic Bertrand -

OMS

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Failure is always an option

Might be significant in this case though if peak voltage is taken into account, which if my maths is right is a few volts over 350v.

Fair enough, but remember that the statutory limits are currently 216.2V to 253V measured at the outgoing (load) terminals of the meter, or the outgoing (load) terminals of the isolator where this is provided by the DNO / Meter Operator. .

Regards,

Alan.

I don't have a theory to explain it either (in theory a high resistance should reduce the voltage the lamp sees - increasing the service life!) ... it's just that it's happened a few times too often to be just down to chance and none of the the other factors seem to explain it.

- Andy.