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[ADM]

Hi,
New to this forum but would like to know if anyone can help.
Our down stairs lights are very dull at times yet other times glow normally. We have a ceiling light and two wall lights which take 40w G9 halogen bulbs this is really bugging me as we have had an electrician in who checked inside the CU and said everything was tight and ok and checked voltage at a couple of light switches which he said was ok, he checked wires at the ceiling light fittings and said they were ok but i know these do not seem to be glowing properly. I have read about earth leakage and dodgy mcbs and loose mains neutrals, does anyone know if it could be any of these. The upstairs lights are fine so i can not see it being the mains incoming into the house. Our CU is a newish install 16th edition about 8 years ago. Please any help ???

[ericmark]

Welcome to the forum. The G9 bulb is designed to work to within some very tight voltage tolerances so it the voltage does dip then it will be noticed more with the G9 bulb than with standard tungsten.

To measure the voltage would need some data logging as to be in the house just when the voltage dips would take some luck.

Since you have already had an electrician check the house I will assume there is nothing wrong with the house. With DIY I have found where neutral and switched line have been mixed up causing lamps to be wired in series instead of parallel but then normally the owner will realize it is when some combination of lights is used when they become dim.

You can try complaining to the DNO not sure how they will react. Specially since you have never recorded the voltage when lights are dim. Or use some lamps which auto correct for volt drop.

The extra low voltage lamps (12v) use inverters which will auto correct with voltage changes and also HF florescent fitting auto correct but normal inductance controlled are really bad with volt drop on the HF electronic type auto correct. But LED are likely the best option these really don't seem to mind massive volt drops.

I note you can buy LED G9 bulbs so that would seem the easy way out.