Sucks when you as an electrican cant figure out if something is right when your working in your own home lol heres the question

I just installed a BESA 4light pendant fixture this evening in my kitchen http://www.fun-n-profit.com/besa_PV_series_pendants.htm
model type is like a; 4PV-414881-BR it would be the third one down on that page!

It is a 12volt 50 watt haligon system
I mount it up, tie it in (which was a pain in the as#) attach the globes and bulb bla bla bla
Ok step back call the wife in hit the switch and wham its all good, wife loves it. I start cleaning up i can can sence that smell of something burning i look up and their is a light smoke comeing from the inside of the globes. I shut the switch off drop down the canopy and everything is fine inside. I put it back together fire it up again and it smokes for like 10 mins and appears to have stoped. I ran the fixture for 30 mins and it appears ok. The only other thing i noticed is the hanging wires seem to get warm/warmer (near the glass) to the touch. This fixtuers have alittle glass tube that screws over top of the bulb inside the globe. my guess to prevent the bulb for burning someone if it popped. SO long winded but has anyone out ther ever had this happen befor.
I am new to this high end lighting. is it normal for a haligon bulb to burn off? and for those wires to be warm even though everything inside is cool?
And has anyone worked with besa products
PLEASE HELP!
Sorry had to fix some typos
[This message has been edited by NJ Wireman (edited 11-16-2004).]

[This message has been edited by NJ Wireman (edited 11-16-2004).]

I have had some of these type fixtures that were not so clean/used.... Say if you touched the lamps while installing it would burn off finger oils, and dust etc. Reduces bulb life if you touch them, and may burst....

As for the warmth, it is something to watch out for. These Low Voltage fixtures have a tendancy burn out contacts if not really tight. I will often put these up and wait a while with the fixture on for it to heat up. Check all the hokey fittings these type of things use, and tighten them, and check them again. We warrantee these things, (if we sold it to them) and if the fittings or contact aren't tight, or resistive they will heat, and eventualy burn out, if not cause damage to the fixture, are a possible fire hazard if left un-corrected. Some minor heat from the lamp is ok, but if the conductive parts are hot, start tightening..... or thats $270 down the drain. (And I personally feel these type of fixtures are great, but recently the quality has gone down.)

NJ,

I haven't worked with BESA before, but I have had the pleasure of my share of high end low volt lighting.

The heating of the wire at the sockets will be the conducted heat, in large part, generated by the lamp itself. The lamp holder is so tiny that is will not sink much heat.

I'll bet that there was some schmutz on the end of the pendant conductors where they're riveted to the lampholders. Just a hunch, though.

Being as it is in your home, you have the luxury of observing it that we normally don't get in the field. I'd start to investigate if the smoke reappears.

Otherwise, I'd crack it up to how tiny the parts are and how hot the bulb gets, and even the very expensive high end has the same cheap parts (much of the time).

[This message has been edited by ElectricAL (edited 11-17-2004).]

Well this never happened with a light, but I had something like this happen to me with a ceiling fan. As you stated that the longer it stayed on, the burning smell went away. As best I can figure, the motor had some type of coating that burned off after the fan heated up. I had taken the fan down a total of 3 times to find nothing. I even replaced it with another like and kind. Luck would have it that this was at my sister-in-laws house, so my name was saved.

Bert, I had a similar thing happen with a newly installed Hunter ceiling fan w/ a 4-lamp light kit, in my own home. The day after I put it up, my wife said she noticed a burning smell. But after it ran a while, it went away. I was going to open it up and check the connections, and as I was removing the light globes I spotted the problem. The globes each had a thick rubber band around the groove where the thumb-screws clamp into the glass. This is supposed to help hold the glass snug without the screws digging into the glass itself. The heat from the lamps had dried out the rubber and casused the burning smell. After I removed the rubber bands, which fell apart to the touch, there was never a problem again.

CRW, i had the exact same problem with a fan in my home, it smelled like the house was burning down and after some invest. it was found to be the same prob you had!