Re: Mains Voltage Halogen & LD11

[Richard Malcolm-Smith <rich@xxxxxxx>]

Mike Griffiths wrote:
>
> Came home last night and a Light circuit MCB had tripped
> A normal occurrence a bulb had blown
> Traced it to a blown 50 watt Mains Voltage Halogen GU10

I've never had a circuit breaker trip with a bulb blowing. I have a
couple of the mains halogens in use here, but they are the larger ones
that are a replacement for an R63 or R80 downlight (miniture screw on
the base of them) - Used them as I have no access to put a transformer
in the ceiling area.

I have had a breaker trip when a 1000 watt halogen flood light blew, but
that blew in a manner that made you think it was a strobe - there was a
_huge_ white flash outside, bright enough to be seen during the day.
Mind you , because of the age of the place it only had the smaller
wiring for the lights (forget the mm area of it) so therefore only had a
10 amp breaker.

> There are 4 of these connected to a LD11
> The fuse had blown in this LD11
> The fuse was as black as the ace of spades
> Replaced fuse changed bulb
> LD 11 is stuck on :(

You will need to change the triac in the LD11. The weird thing is, I
have never heard of anyone having a rotary dimmer control blow out with
a bulb going. X10 must have gotten a good deal on the triacs they have
used. If you are replacing it, use a good brand like ST or Motorola. The
generic no branders seem to be ummmm, crap.

> No control oh dear
> This is the first Mains Voltage Halogen bulb I have had blown of this
type
> I hope this doesn't mean a new LD11 each time
> Anyone else had similar problems ?
> Thanks in advance

Are they mounted base up or down? The filiment in these is packed pretty
tight, so its easy to see how they could fall down to create a shorter
short in them.