DIYbanter - View Single Post - Protecting against transient blown lighting fuse

Bob Minchin[_4_]

wrote:
My tenants in the shop have called me out for the third time because the
lighting fuse blew when they turned on their miniature halogen chandelier
and one of the lamps blew at switch-on. To me, continuously blowing fuses
means a faulty appliance, and in this case I definitely blame the halogen
chandelier. I hate the things. I should never have installed it for them,
but they'd already bought it and "it looks sooooo nice!!!".

Anyway, when I rewired the shop 15 years ago all the lighting is in 1.5mm
cables. 1.5mm at "clipped direct", "within non-insulating wall", "floor/
ceiling void" is rated at between 16A and 20A. I'm tempted to replace the
5A lighting circuit fuse with a 10A fuse to avoid transient blowing when
a halogen blows. Total circuit consumption is 365W of tubes, 15W CFL and
180W of the halogen chandelier, so 2.3A running total. Any comments?

jgh

Almost certainly the inrush current of the halogens so not really a
fault. A 10amp fuse would be a pragmatic solution as would replacing the
fuse with a B10 plug in MCB ( if your CU is a suitable type) as they
would be able to reset the breaker themselves.