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blowing light bulbs |
I have been asked recently why light bulbs blow so often? and why does the circuit breaker trip? I cannot ever recall the fuse blowing when a lamp blows!
In most cases the reason why lamps (light bulbs) blow is due to the cheap quality of the bulbs. I have recently attended friends houses who suspected a faulty light fitting as the bulbs kept blowing, After obtaining some good quality bulbs the problem subsided.
As I have mentioned on other pages circuit breakers are far more sensitive than fuses and therefore the breaker will trip whereas a fuse would not, although It possible for the fuse to blow.
The circuit breaker does not trip because a broken filament has dropped onto a lead out wire as some people would have you believe but is due to the gas or filament in the lamp becoming ionised, the high temperature and large electric field can cause the gas to go into a conductive state and the plasma will spread until it shorts out the lead wires.
It always makes sense to check the Light fitting just in case a fault genuinely does exist, so with the electricity isolated at the consumer unit, check the lamp holders for signs of damage or blackening.
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