Kitchen light - flickers then slight smoke

daisy_jean

We've lived in our rented house for almost 6 yrs now - intermittent problems, all sorted very quickly by our efficient landlord.

Now, we've had issues with the kitchen light fitting for a little while - it is this style http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bright-54944-17-15-Spotlight/dp/B000MRYDTU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1410900833&sr=8-3&keywords=kitchen+light+fitting+4+light - the bulbs were regularly blowing, but we just presumed it was cos we were changing them at different points of their lifespans and kind of gave up on it for a while and haven't used it.

But, at the weekend we took the step to change all 4 bulbs and start afresh. All good, until tonight - the lights began flickering quite a bit, then there was a noise like something sparking and some slight light smoke came from the ceiling fixture and one of the bulb fittings. Needless to say, I turned it off immediately.


Any clues to what may have caused this? I intend on reporting it to the Landlord tomorrow, who'll hopefully get the electrician around to look at it - do I need to turn the fusebox switch off overnight, or will it be okay through simply not using it?
Thanks!

Quiet_Spark

Sounds like a partially loose wire in the fitting housing, if it's been fine as you say without using it then you can probably leave the CU alone until tomorrow as long as you leave it switched off.

As for the lamps constantly blowing, GU10 lamps are reknown for it so stock up with a small supply of spares (decent branded ones, not the cheap crap).

daisy_jean

Okay, brill thanks