Hi there,
I'm a newbie so hi there! Apologies if this is a stupid query but I'm doing my nut having to replace bulbs on an almost weekly basis (and I have searched previous posts too but still need some advice..).
We moved in about 2 years ago, the house was supposed to have been re- wired (at least partially) within the last 5 years, all the lights are on one circuit and we have modern switch type fuse box (sorry not a tech, just giving my best description..).
At first with standard bulbs they were blowing one every couple of weeks, in addition the kitchen light (flourescent tube) had a flickery effect when coming on and was prone to tripping the circuit.
First we replaced all our standard bulbs with energy efficient ones. No help, it just became much more expensive to replace them. The kitchen light was quite old and also our son flooded the bathroom (directly above the kitchen) with the effect that everything got soaked and we thought maybe that had affected something in the light fitting. Scrapping the whole light fitting we bought a nice bright halogen track light from IKEA.
Sometime over the last couple of months the rest of our lights seem to have settled down and I haven't had to replace one for ages. The flip side of this is that the halogens have been a disaster, there are 5 x GU10 35 watt bulbs on the track and they blow at a rate of 1 or 2 a week....
In terms of contributing factors, they are not recessed, not anymore exposed to heat/vapour than would be normal as it is a fair sized kitchen with extractor, there has been once since we got them another 'flood' from above (courtesy of my son - AGAIN) but they were already blowing before this happened and I just don't know what is wrong or how to find out (short of calling an electrician which seems a little excessive...)
Any suggestions on what is wrong and how to remedy it would be very gratefully received :)
thanks for reading, fay