DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

HI ALL, thank you for having me on your forum. Can anyone help, i have a couple of queries on pull switch wall lights i bought for the living room:
1) Once installed, one of the lights has blown 3 bulbs whilst all the others have been fine, they are a brushed chrome and all the lights seem to get very hot after a couple of minutes of being on, the bulbs are 40w golf ball.
2) When installing them i had to add extra earth wire, so i could connect it to the base of the light, this wire is bare with no sleeve, is this a problem?
These wall lights replaced halogen wall lights which were too bright, but never had a problem with them blowing, just as well, pricey.
Would be very grateful for any feedback from you very clever DIY'ers out there.
Cheers :? :?:

There is very little you could do to make bulbs blow other than a bad connection switching them on and off all the time.
Earth wires should be marked Yellow/Green although it is unlikely to cause a problem with lack of marking a bit of common sense is required. Can it touch live wire etc. If you can use tape or sleeve you should.
Light bulbs do get very hot I use to fry my bacon on an upturned lamp until glass shattered. (Algeria and Falklands)
Some bulbs are available as rough service and sometimes you can get 250 volt rated instead of 230 both which will make them last better. Also a dimmer switch will help with bulb life.
Are the bulbs marked I have come across cheap imports which were ratted 220 volt these would cause a problem. The spot lights work in a different way and may take over voltage better.

Hi Agree entirely with Eric, loose connection would have been my guess too!