DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

No recent changes to lights / wiring.

I got home last night and turned on the lights for my kitchen. The lights are controlled by one dimmer switch and are ceiling recessed mounted.

When I turned the dimmer switch on, I could hear a pop and the fuse blew. The fuse box is a push-button fuse type, so I went over to it, noticed that the light's circuit had tripped, and I reset the fuse.

The rest of the lights came back fine, but the kitchen lights did not come back on. I tried the switch again, but the kitchen lights are just not working anymore.

I found the transformer for the lights, and it says that it is a "self resetting short circuit, thermal and overload protection" transformer. So, it does not look like I would need to change a fuse in the transformer at all.

I'm at a loss - what else could this be? The specific light bulbs look fine. They are 240V 50W "Halopar 16" bulbs.

Any ideas what else I should think about? thanks in advance!

I would remove all kitchen bulbs but one and then after testing swap remaining one. If it works than replace bulbs one at a time if not likely inverter/transformer has blown.
Sorry can't really help any more.
Eric

I discovered the problem with this, hope it helps someone else!

First, it turns out that the transformer in the kitchen wasn't for the kitchen lights - it was for the bathroom lights directly above the room. So the transformer is unrelated. The kitchen lights are on the mains.

There are six ceiling lights, each at 50W. It turns out that the dimmer switch is rated up to 250W. One of the kitchen bulbs had blown, and this must have also blown the dimmer switch that wasn't rated highly enough.

I replaced the dimmer switch with one rated up to 300W, replaced the one bulb that had gone out, and everything works well now.

thx