On Wednesday, November 12, 2014 1:53:18 PM UTC, 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

Replace the fuse with mcb, or fit a 12v chandelier, or use LED lamps in it. ISTR the 17th allowing 10A circuits with SBC & SES, but check that. There are other options that are more involved, such as a series transformer.

Flashover in halogens is in the region of 60-200A IIRC, so a 10A fuse might or might not prevent the problem mostly, but I don't assume it will.

Isn't it their job to do maintenance like replacing blown fuses?


NT