Floodlight problem

[Jonbhoy]

Hi all,

Got a floodlight problem thats got me baffled as i put in three at home which were fine a year ago so the neighbour who was broken into friday asked me to put in a couple.Im not an electrician by any means,just a keen DIY'er.

She had a bulkhead light above her door which i stripped off and put a weatherproof junction on then from that i added one of the choc box junctions (do they still call them that or am i showing my age!) . I basically simply added the two lights into that junction box running like for like (two lives into the live,two neutrals into the neutral etc as this worked fine at my home).

Well went to try it out tonight and the two halogen bulbs (500w) both blew !!!!Checked the wiring and its all correct so im a bit baffled.The two lights as i say are halogen 500w floodlights,i wasnt sure of which cable to use so asked the guy at TLC who said i needed 1.5mm twin core and earth which i used.Im wondering if that may have been to lightweight for the job.

Any ideas folks as its got me totally puzzled!!!

Many thanks,

Jon

[Jonbhoy]

One thing i might add which may be the problem but would be good to have it confirmed,i forgot to sleave the earth at the junction so the two earths although touching at the junction inside and screwed down , they may also be touching outside that.But would that blow the bulbs?????

Jon

[Palindr☻me]

Nope. The odds are that the lamps came from the same (faulty?) cheap import batch. So they both blew together.

-- Sue

[ARWadsworth]

Did you touch the lamps with your fingers? The greases in your skin destroy halogen lamps.

Adam

[Codswallop]

Try wiring up one light first and when that is working add the second light. That should narrow down where the problem is.

[Palindr☻me]

LOL, nope, I didn't. But, if someone did then that just shortens the life of the lamp a great deal - but won't cause immediate failure.

[Jonbhoy]

Thats one thing i made sure i did,even wore surgical gloves freshly stolen from a stay in hospital...erm....if anyone here works for the NHS i didnt say that! ;-)

Jon

[Andrew Gabriel]

Could they have been 110V bulbs?

A few years ago, B&Q got a batch of halogen bulbs in which were in packaging marked 240V, but were in fact 110V. I saw the recall notice in the store.

[Jonbhoy]

As said by Palindr?me the fault was found.The two halogen bulbs i bought were duds! I bought two new ones from B&Q and popped them in and they worked first time.I got the original ones from TLC which i have always been happy with in the past.But the bulbs were only about £1.90 each so not a major thing.

Thanks to all that tried to help me out , its very much appreciated.

Cheers,

Jon

[Palindr☻me]

I got two packs of two own-brand Tesco incandescent lamps and three of the four popped as soon as they were switched on. The last one went an hour or so later. I took them back and got the money refunded in full, without a murmur.

I also got a dozen low energy lamps from Screwfix and five of those failed within a couple of weeks. They gave me a refund too - without any fuss (and without wanting the dead lamps returned).

Just because they are lamps that doesn't mean that you can't get refunds on ones if they fail unquestionably prematurely.

As someone else has pointed out 1kW of lamps is going to spin the old meter....

[Jonbhoy]

Yep told her that before she wanted them but she lives alone and wants the security of only having them on every now and then.But shes very pleased with them as i nipped round tonight to see them working.Still im glad its on here meter and not mine ;-)

Thanks again for your help.

Jon

[Blueyonder]

Maybe I'm just a tight arse git, but I changed the 500w halogens to 150W in my security lights. You can hardly notice the difference in illumination, probably shortens the range a little but good enough to light up the area around the back of the house.

Brian

[Palindr☻me]

The fitting will last a lot longer too.

[Ferde]

Absolutely correct. I bought a PIR fitting of 150w capacity with a 3 year guarantee, a similar 500w fitting, identical in appearance and from the same manufacturer has only a 1 year guarantee!