led lighting problem


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Old 12-28-12, 08:58 AM
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led lighting problem

I have recently installed 13no LED spotlights in my kitchen, each one is 4 watt, the led drivers are rated at 6watt.
The circuit is on a 6 amp breaker and is wired in 1mm T&E, I have wired the new lighting in 1.5mm T&E and is switched from 3 switches.
The lighting works fine but keeps tripping out the breaker, it doesn't do it all the time but if i turn the LED spots off then back on it trips it out 100% of the time. It doesn't seem to make much difference how many other lights on this circuit are on or off when doing this.
I have checked all of the wiring and it is all OK.
Is this caused by the LED drivers during switching or something else?
I have calculated the load and the 6 amp breaker should be OK, will swapping it for a 10 amp breaker and wiring back to the board in 1.5mm to just feed the new lighting resolve it?
Any advise will be greatly appreciated.
 
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Old 12-28-12, 09:16 AM
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Welcome to the forums. This is primarily a North American site so you may not get much help because of the differences in your wiring. Example you mention a 6 amp circuit but the smallest circuit you will see here is 15 amps. (Those of course are 120v circuits used for lighting and general power but even our 240v circuits don't go smaller then 15 amps.)
 
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Old 12-28-12, 04:14 PM
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Switching power supplies are basically a short circuit for the first microsecond so when turned on so yes it IS possible that this is the cause of your circuit breaker tripping. Whether or not you can install a larger (amperage-wise) circuit breaker to alleviate this problem depends upon the size of the wire the circuit breaker protects.
 
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Old 12-28-12, 07:57 PM
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I have calculated the load and the 6 amp breaker should be OK, will swapping it for a 10 amp breaker and wiring back to the board in 1.5mm to just feed the new lighting resolve it?
Given Furd's point about the temporary short circuit and the fact that you already used 1.5 mm conductors in connecting your new devices, that seems to be worth a try.

There is no guarantee, of course. Were we there, we would be testing the integrity and isolation of the conductors before proceeding.
 
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Old 12-28-12, 08:05 PM
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1mm T&E is rated for 11 amps so using a 10 amp breaker is ok as far as your input wiring is concerned.
 
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Old 12-29-12, 01:05 AM
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Thanks all for your comments. I'll try the 10 amp breaker and hopefully that will resolve it.
 
 

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