Help on Faulty Electrics

[actresskat]

Hi, We had to move out of our flat (due to relocation of work) and now we have tenants in our flat. The tenants think there's faulty electrics as they replace, on average, two halogen bulbs a week all around our flat and we had a similar problem when we were there (but couldn't say how many as we didn't think too much about it). They've even had one incident where a bulb in the bathroom went, they went downstairs to replace it only to find it had come back on and was working again.

They also report that the hallway lighting, exterior of the flat is regularly off - at least twice a week, only to be fixed by the maintenance company and they're starting to wonder if there's a connection.


Could there be an integral problem with the whole buildings electricity? Is there any way an electrician would be able to diagnose whether the problem is isolated to our flat i.e. after the consumer unit or linked in any way to the exterior electrics in the rest of the building? I understand, from what an electrician friend said last time, that the nature of there being motion sensors in the hallway rather than switches would cause them to blow more frequently...but would it really cause 2 bulbs to blow a week, in any room of our flat, including those with regular switches? Also could an underlying electrical problem cause a fridge to break and hob to go wrong? So far we've replaced two hallway motion sensors, the fridge stopped working, the dishwasher has been fixed twice after throwing up errors, there was a flame under the glass hob so they turned it off and that got fixed - could these kitchen problems also be related to electrics?

 

[Richard Burns]

Fire rated down lighters are the ones with a metal can on the back of them.
They are designed to ensure that if there is a fire in the room then the resistance of the ceiling to the spread of fire is not compromised.
They are only required in rooms where the penetration of the ceiling leads into another dwelling (actually if it is penetration of a fire compartment) e.g. if there is a another flat above the room. They are recommended in other rooms but make no real difference to the spread of fire in the main.

They will not generally help with overheating as they tend to trap the heat in the can to some extent.
This is similar to the problem you get when any type of downlight is covered in insulation.

The only thing to help overheating (apart from changing the lamps to CFL or LED) is to check if your fittings are only designed for reflector lamps as opposed to dichroic lamps.
Dichroic lamps push heat backwards and can lead to more overheating (particularly if the lamp is covered)
Aluminium lamps only send heat forward and can lead to a cooler fitting.
If dichroic lamps are put in an aluminium only fitting the fitting can get too hot and cause problems.
Reflector lamps have a solid aluminium backing, dichroic lamps have a semi translucent pearlescent backing, not very obvious unless a light is shining through the backing.

 

[oldtimer]

It makes you think we are trying to deal with a potential fire hazard and get berrated for not installing them properly yet how come the standards people did not just ban them or is it just the fact that big business rules and the guys at the bottom of the ladder get the blame.