who should get the bill

[froggy]

We have a light problem in our rental, the lights keep blowing in the lounge room they are the hanging style with 4 bulbs that dim.

I have said to send an electrician in but am suspicious as the light bulbs that the tenant is putting in are the wrong ones (watt) she made a comment that it was blowing all her energy saving light bulbs????
If when the electrican goes to the house and if it turns out to be the fact that it is the wrong bulbs being put in do i have to pay the bill or can i pass this on to tenant? If it is electrical then of course i am happy to pay but i am just getting sick of paying for all the small petty things she has been complaining about, it has cost me over $600 last month alone in tradesmen for mostly minor stupid things eg: pilot light needed lighting....couldnt press the ignite button.... and a power point that needed replacing which i said yes to but tenant got several others done with out my consent while electrician was there i was annoyed but paid the bill i am just getting really tired with it- there was nothing electricly wrong with tenant just wanted new ones. the list goes on and on



thanks in advance

 

[Rolf Latham]

Hiya

Energy Savers and dimmers dont mix

No wonder they keep frying

ta
rolf

 

[handyandy]

Seems that the dimmer and energy saving bulb are incompatible. From this post

http://www.woodworkforums.com/showpost.php?p=508546&postcount=5

Typically an incadesent dimmer works by blocking part of the sine wave of the alternating current. The more of the sine wave that is blocked, the dimmer the light bulb. The incasesent bulb works by heating a filiment until it glows thereby giving off light.

A flourescent dimer works by blocking complete sine waves. The dimmer may remove one out of 5 or 6 sine waves, making the bulb give off less light. To make the bulb glow dimmer, more sine waves are blocked. (Perhaps every other sine wave is blocked or even four out of six, etc.) A flourescent works by the sine wave travelling through the tube, exciting the inside coating of the bulb. When the coating of the bulb is excited it glows.

The dimmers that I've seen used on flourescent bulbs do not work very well especially with multi bulb fixtures. The problem is that each bulb is slightly different and one bulb may not fire at all thus disrupting the total current flow in the fixture and causing the other bulb(s) to not work either.
​

So either you need to swap out the dimmer and this indicates that that may still not fix the problem with multiple ES bulbs or get the tenant to not use ES bulbs. Getting the tenant to not use ES bulbs is the cheaper option.

Cheers

 

[lizzie]

as your tenant can no longer legally buy incandescent bulbs, then it would be ridiculous to expect her to "not" put energy saving bulbs in the fixture.

get the electrician out to remove the dimmer facility and all should be well.

 

[Belu]

I had a similar situation with a tenant recently. The fuse box kept blowing and they obviously needed electricity.

I said "are there any appliances that might be blowing it?" It was the middle of winter so assumed it would be a heater etc. They said no, tried all that, etc.

I simply said to them. "I will organise one now, and if the problem is to do with the apartment's wiring, as it is an old apartment, i will happily pay. If, however, it is as a result of your appliances would you be willing to pay?"

They can't help but say yes to that one - and you have a qualified electrician to judge it. Turned out it was their fault so no cashflow from me.

Sometimes the simple question can solve the issue

Cheers

Ben

 

[Pushka]

I think they are going to produce an energy saving globe that will work with dimmers. And specialist lighting stores will continue carrying incandescent globes.

 

[Perp]

Energy Savers and dimmers dont mix

Seems that the dimmer and energy saving bulb are incompatible.

I think they are going to produce an energy saving globe that will work with dimmers.

Standard compact fluorescent bulbs can't be used with dimmers, but there are speciable dimmable CF bulbs available. They've been around for several years. eg http://lightingpro.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=358

They're expensive, though - about $20 ea - and I haven't had a good experience with mine; they seem to blow quite frequently even though they're dimmable, and aren't reliable - sometimes they come on, and sometimes they don't. When they work, I do love them; I bought the warm bulbs and the quality of the light is lovely and far less harsh than normal CFs. It could be that the technology has improved and you'd have a better experience now, than I had with bulbs bought a few years ago. (I bought 8 for my living room @ $30 ea! )

I've had enough; I'm planning to either change over to dimmable LED downlights, or remove the dimming feature.