Spotlights Blowing Continuosly

Hoki

Hi , got called to a house this morning where the guy has all spotlights in the upstairs area , they keep blowing every 10 days or so for the last couple of years & he is spending a small fortune on bulbs . They take the regular pear shape bulbs - not the lowlights .

There is no transformer with any of the lights so im presuming thats the problem ? That said he doesnt want to change out all the lights to include trafos as its to costly to him - If i recomend the long life low energy bulbs will they reduce the consistency at which they blow ?

Another thing - whoever wired the house previously connected in the timer for the central heating into the 10 amp lighting breaker , i know this needs a breaker for itself but what im wondering is would this have any affect whatsoever on the lights? The heating has been working fine .

Cheers

2011

Hi , got called to a house this morning where the guy has all spotlights

Do you mean downlighters?

There is no transformer with any of the lights so im presuming thats the problem ?

Are they GU10s like this:

GU10s tend not to last too long. Voltage fluctuations in the supply can shorten their life span dramatically! Using quality transformers means that the lamp has a much more constant voltage, with the supply fluctuations "smoothed out". This extends lamp life enormously.

That said he doesnt want to change out all the lights to include trafos as its to costly to him

It amy be cheaper in the long run! Also the 12 volt are far "higher efficacy", which basically means more light produced for the same running cost (about 40%).

If i recomend the long life low energy bulbs will they reduce the consistency at which they blow ?

Yes, but you may find that the following may be an issue for him:
1) The light "quality" may not be as good
2) With some of them they take a while to turn on fully
3) They may not be dimmable
4) Some of these are quite expensive!

whoever wired the house previously connected in the timer for the central heating into the 10 amp lighting breaker

I see nothing wrong with that. A boiler is a very small load.

would this have any affect whatsoever on the lights?

No, not at all.

Davy

If the insulation is sitting on top of them with no air gap around them i find it kills the lamp a lot quicker. Havent seen it as bad as this case though.

You could put in a voltage recorder and see what the supply is like, other than that cant think of much else, 2011 covered the rest

2011

If the insulation is sitting on top of them with no air gap around them i find it kills the lamp a lot quicker

True!

Rev. BlueJeans

Heat build up is the most common cause of DOA with these, I find.

I'd suggest changing out for LEDs as they fail, personally. I'd do it in my own installation, but I haven't lost a GU10 in about three years (and I have lots!)

Hoki

The bulbs he's using at the moment are these bad boys he had a different spark in about a year ago who said they were overheating & he supposedly cleared away the insulation in the attic above the lights - yet the problem persists .

I should mention the premises is actually an office but it used to be a house , when he lived there he never had any such problems but when he converted it into the office about 5 years ago the problem became apparent - he said he added in a good few more lights to what was originally there. Surely if there was too many lights off the 1 breaker it would trip out instead of blowing yes?

2011

Too many lights on the circuit would not cause the lamp life to reduce.

davelerave

Aside from bulb/installation issues.Other Possible issues with incandescents are over-voltage,voltage disturbances and contact problems in the installation.
Surge diversion can be a consideration as well sometimes ,but there is a maintenace aspect to it(modules have to be replaced)