Lighting problems - need help ASAP

Hi, I really hope someone has the patience to help me :eek: bare with me...

The past couple of days I've had real problems with the lighting for my panther chameleon. I have an Exo Terror medium Glow Lamp fitted with an Arcadia 100W D3 Basking Lamp. I have used this since the beginning of September. It is plugged into a timer.
3 days ago the light started flickering and making a buzz noise as if it were vibrating, then the light turned off. I thought the bulb had gone (which i wasnt really happy about after 3 months :( )
So I went out and bought exactly the same bulb. I had that in for a day and it started to the same and eventually went out too.
So I went back to the store and bought a new Exo Terror Glow Lamp thinking that that was possibly faulty. I plugged the old light into it and nothing happened (blown). Plugged the new one into it, it worked for all of 20 mins then start buzzing flickring and went out (another one blown?). I took everything (new and old bulb and original and new glow lamp) to my local reptile store and asked them to help me figure out what was the problem and they tried all the equipment in working fixture/lights etc and they ended up changing the fuse in the orignal Exo Terror Glow Lamp. So i came home with a new bulb and a "fixed" Glow Lamp.
I plugged it all in kept an eye on it for an hour and it all seemed fine, no problems. I had to go out and when i came back (3 hours later) the light was dim, flickering, buzzing so I unplugged it from the timer and plugged it straight in at the mains.
It seemed fine all working normally for an hour, and now the light has gone out?
Please can someone help me figure out whats going on, my poor cham is not happy at all and I really don't know whats going on :-(

Thank you in advance
 
Sounds like a bad ballast or starter or possibly something wonky with the relay in the timer.
 
Ok, would you suggest starting over... new timer/blub/lamp? :-/ I'm clueless and dont want to disrupt my cham anymore than I have too :-s
 
I use the Arcadia t5. Its a strip light 6% . It's pricy but lasts for a year. Ordinary household bulb for basking.
 
after replacing EVERYTHING new fitting, new d3 basking lamp (both arcadia now) trying them in every socket in the room... and each time, when you turn it on it flickers then is normal for about 30mins - 60mins, then straight back to flickering/buzzing/crackleing and then the light fades. When you leave it for a while (i guess when it cools down) you can start that whole process over again.

We are now trying with an extension cable from downstairs... and if that is still the same we will pop to a friends house to see if the same happens there ... then rule out faulty equipment.

Has anyone had anything like this happen where everything is fine for months... then suddenly the electricity can't cope?! surely this can't be the reason
 
I had a similar problem with my light fixture. It ended up being the ballast not the bulbs themselves and nothing wrong with voltage in the electrical outel.It ended up being more expensive to fix than to buy a new one so i just ended up tossing the light fixture and buying a new one. =/ sorry this prob wasn't the answer u were looking for but try asking someone maybe in your family or friends thats good with electrical work to check the ballast in the light fixture.
 
I had a similar problem with my light fixture. It ended up being the ballast not the bulbs themselves and nothing wrong with voltage in the electrical outel.It ended up being more expensive to fix than to buy a new one so i just ended up tossing the light fixture and buying a new one. =/ sorry this prob wasn't the answer u were looking for but try asking someone maybe in your family or friends thats good with electrical work to check the ballast in the light fixture.

No, I really really appreciate your help. I think that was the problem... but We ended up getting a completely new set up. new bulb and fixture... same thing happening! We have tried upstairs sockets and downstairs sockets Everything in the rest of the house works fine... but this light. I am worrying so much :-/
 
Dumb question but did you check your line voltage(checking frequency requires $$$ meter)? Line regulation is less than 90$ here in the USA. Line voltage standards are 110-135vac based on how far you are from the hub and how many people are sucking the line dry infront of you(they sell 130v bulbs here for people on the high end). Flicker/death could be caused by running the fixture at or just below the min voltage requirement.

Also another dumb question: You are running T8's correct? you are not doing something funny and running t5 HO in a standard T5 fixture?
 
My ideas

If I understand correctly, the light fixture is now totally new--not just repaired by the store, the bulb is new, the timer was bypassed to test it and was not the problem and the timer plugs directly into the wall outlet--not into a multiple outlet adapter or powerstrip.
Is that all correct?

You could have a bad powerstrip or adapter if you're using either one and the check for that of course is to plug the light fixture directly into the wall socket instead.

If everything is new and the light fixture is plugged directly into a wall outlet, then I suspect that the lamps and fixtures in your local store are all from the same manufacturing batch--and maybe it is just a defective batch.

You can test the bulb itself by plugging it in to a regular fixture that is designed to use 100 watt bulbs and see what happens.
You can test the light fixture by installing a regular household 100 watt bulb
and seeing what happens.

The only other possibilities that comes to mind is that the particular wall outlets you have used were already being used at maximum capacity and the lamp drawing power just puts it over the maximum OR the wall outlets were both on the wiring to the same circuit breaker and the circuit breaker is defective---but my money is on the lamp fixture or bulb.


Hope this solves the mystery for you and you'll let us know what turned out to be the trouble.
 
Dumb question but did you check your line voltage(checking frequency requires $$$ meter)? Line regulation is less than 90$ here in the USA. Line voltage standards are 110-135vac based on how far you are from the hub and how many people are sucking the line dry infront of you(they sell 130v bulbs here for people on the high end). Flicker/death could be caused by running the fixture at or just below the min voltage requirement.

Also another dumb question: You are running T8's correct? you are not doing something funny and running t5 HO in a standard T5 fixture?

Thats what i thought the prob was with my fixture but had the voltage checked and it was fine. if your new set up does the same then you know something is wonky with your voltage for sure.
 
did you take it to your neighbours to try it? If it does it there, the problem is the equipment for sure

Dumb question but did you check your line voltage(checking frequency requires $$$ meter)? Line regulation is less than 90$ here in the USA. Line voltage standards are 110-135vac based on how far you are from the hub and how many people are sucking the line dry infront of you(they sell 130v bulbs here for people on the high end). Flicker/death could be caused by running the fixture at or just below the min voltage requirement.

Also another dumb question: You are running T8's correct? you are not doing something funny and running t5 HO in a standard T5 fixture?
If I understand correctly, the light fixture is now totally new--not just repaired by the store, the bulb is new, the timer was bypassed to test it and was not the problem and the timer plugs directly into the wall outlet--not into a multiple outlet adapter or powerstrip.
Is that all correct?

You could have a bad powerstrip or adapter if you're using either one and the check for that of course is to plug the light fixture directly into the wall socket instead.

If everything is new and the light fixture is plugged directly into a wall outlet, then I suspect that the lamps and fixtures in your local store are all from the same manufacturing batch--and maybe it is just a defective batch.

You can test the bulb itself by plugging it in to a regular fixture that is designed to use 100 watt bulbs and see what happens.
You can test the light fixture by installing a regular household 100 watt bulb
and seeing what happens.

The only other possibilities that comes to mind is that the particular wall outlets you have used were already being used at maximum capacity and the lamp drawing power just puts it over the maximum OR the wall outlets were both on the wiring to the same circuit breaker and the circuit breaker is defective---but my money is on the lamp fixture or bulb.


Hope this solves the mystery for you and you'll let us know what turned out to be the trouble.

Thank you all so much for trying to help me, I can't tell u how much I appreciate it. both me and the boyfr are stressing out here. Ok...

I am now using a BRAND NEW set up
D3 ARCADIA BASKING LAMP which is UVA UVB IR
jpg-2562.jpg

which is screwed into a
Arcadia Ceramic Reflector Clamp Lamp (large one)
22514_1_Arcadia-Ceramic-Reflector-Clamp-Lamp.jpg

(images just to show what I have not where I got them)
and I have No tube light
3rd new set up... and hour later... Same Problem. We are having no other problems with any other appliances/computers lights, tv, everything working fine. no flickering. everything else perfectly normal
Lovereps. - You have it exactly right and we are just trying normal household bulb in the fixtures to see what that does. The only thing with a possible defective batch is that I had my original Exo Terro fixture (3 months old - from online), a brand new Exo Terro fixture (from the local reptile store) and a brand new Arcadia fixture (also from reptile shop) so we I doubting it is going to be a fault with all 3 of them. That would be more unlikely than winning the lottery :p however, we arn't ruling it out yet.
We are popping round a friends to test the bulb and fixture with someone elses electricity to rule out the next thing. I don't know what I'm hoping for more... it to fail at my friends or for it to work perfectly? either way I feel pretty helpless :-(
Thank you for your help though x
 
The arcadia bulbs have a year warrenty so if they do blow just send them an email and they send you a new one the very next day.
 
I would get a volt meter out and start doing some investigating do you have or have access to a volt meter?
 
No access or knowledge of volt meter... however, normal house hold bulb in new arcadia light fitting has been working fine for nearly 2 hours :-o I don't want to speak too soon (not that it will make a blind bit of difference!)
Could it be possible that there is a bad batch of Arcadia Bulbs? :-o I have tried 3 in the past week, all from the same shop, all had problems... can't believe i didnt see that the only thing we hadn't changed was the make/type/EVERYTHING was the bulbs... I am just hoping that it is all good for tonight with house hold bulb
 
Flowapowagirl, I did suggest that it may be either a batch of bad bulbs or fixtures ;)

Hope you sort it out before it drives you or your cham mad :D

If everything is new and the light fixture is plugged directly into a wall outlet, then I suspect that the lamps and fixtures in your local store are all from the same manufacturing batch--and maybe it is just a defective batch.

You can test the bulb itself by plugging it in to a regular fixture that is designed to use 100 watt bulbs and see what happens.

You can test the light fixture by installing a regular household 100 watt bulb
and seeing what happens.

The only other possibilities that comes to mind is that the particular wall outlets you have used were already being used at maximum capacity and the lamp drawing power just puts it over the maximum OR the wall outlets were both on the wiring to the same circuit breaker and the circuit breaker is defective---but my money is on the lamp fixture or bulb.
 
Lovereps you were soooo right! thank you so much for your help! Massive fault in all the bulbs at the store... they didn't believe me (as even when i took the light fiture and bulb in) it worked fine for a few mins. I told them it would start doing strange things half an hour to 2 hours later, and I was leaving it with them. I phoned them up 5 hours later :p and they agreed :p YAY! We r not going crazy ! stupid bad batch :p Thank you again for all your help! SORTED!
 
That's very good news and you're very welcome.
I'm glad to help whenever I can.
The store should be grateful to you for helping them to avoid having a lot more unhappy customers.
Hopefully the next bulb for your cham provides only UV not aggravation :eek:
 
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