DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi all,

I had 6 small uplights in both my kitchen and dining room, i.e. one either side of the 2 oak beams.

I have swapped the for halogen spot lamps each having 4 GU10 50w lights on them.

All work fine for 5 mins or so and the MCB then goes!

Have I done something wrong? Or is it just because there is now too much current being drawn?

Any help much appreciated.

Andy

Yes Too much wattage drawing too much current. MCB is tripping on overload.
Reduce wattage of bulbs or number of light fittings.

All I can really do is help converting watts to amps. A watt is volts x amps so since volts fixed at 230 volt then 50 watt = 0.217 amps so 6 x 50 watt = 1.3 amp but of course there will be other lamps as well so add up all the watts and divide by 230 to give amps which in most cases needs to add up to less than 6 amps.

Most houses somewhere have ceiling roses or other items only rated at 5/6 amp so the only way to increase is to split circuits you can't fit a bigger MCB but of course the MCB may be faulty.

Lucky the GU10 fittings will take cold cathode lamps which will reduce the current to 11 watt. They are often a little longer than tungsten and I have found some makes will fit my lights and others will not you may find the same.

Thanks for that, i shall have a count up!