Help! all my lights have gone off. What is wrong??

pinkzebra

Hello, can anybody help? I turned on the living room lights a few minutes ago and they didn't come on. When I pressed the switch, all the other lights that were on, went off. Now I have no lights. Fortunately, the computer, oven and tv still work. Has a fuse blown? or could it be something else?
We moved into this house only a couple of months ago, and already 4 bulbs have blown. Does that mean the electrics are dodgy? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

andysstuff_2

Sounds like a blown fuse/tripped fuse depending on how old your consumer box is.

dounome

How did you get on, have you tried to switch on again from the fuse box

andrew-b

If the consumer unit has lots of little switches on it (MCBs - mini circuit breakers) then you'll likely find the one corresponding to the lighting circuit has tripped (i.e. flicked itself into the downward off position). If you flick it up again you'll probably find another bulb has blown.

Whenever any of our light bulbs blow the whole of lighting circuit goes out. If you have the modern MCB type of consumer unit then dont worry as it means the MCBs are doing their job right. It could just be cheap poor quality light bulbs. If the bulbs keep blowing in the same light fittings it could be the bulb holders in the light fittings are the problem.

Andy

ormus

whilst the power is off, take all the bulbs out and inspect them. one of them is prob the culprit.
replace all the good ones first. any iffy ones? then replace them one at a time.
cheap or old bulb holders commonly give probs like this.

pinkzebra

Thanks for all the replies. My husband came home, and 'flicked a switch' or something on the fuse board thingy, and the lights came on again. I was just wondering though, why the lights would've gone off in the first place. Does that mean we may have a potential problem with our wiring? or would it have tripped for another reason.

Thanks again.

kittyscarlett

no, it does not necessarily mean you have a problem with your wiring. The trip switches are meant to cut the lighting circuit off as a safety measure if a bulb blows. 4 bulbs going in a couple of months is really not all that much esp. if you have newly moved in and the bulbs were there before you were.

My advice : get some longer lasting energy saving bulbs which may cost more in the short term but will save money and stress in the longer term. And get your husband to show you how to reset a trip switch, it's very simple and means you don't need to panic next time.

[Deleted User]

Our fuse box is in our porch - it has lots of switches in it and the last resident has kindly put labels on all of them marking which part of the house they control.

Might be handy to try turning one off at a time and seeing what goes off - then put some sticky labels on them for the next time it happens

baldelectrician

kittyscarlett wrote: »

The trip switches are meant to cut the lighting circuit off as a safety measure if a bulb blows

This is wrong advice, MCB's are meant to trip under fault conditions.
Cheap (non branded) lamps will generally cause MCB's to trip. The decent lamps are 'internally fused' and as such stop the surge reaching a level where it will trip the MCB.

Use branded lamps such as Philips, Osram or Sylvania. These are decent and will give a better light output.

This is a particular issue with mains halogen (GU10) lamps.