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[Alex Atkin UK]

We’ve got the opposite problem - our mains goes as high as 263V for hours at a time occasionally. Normally it’s around the 250V level.

We used to get through incandescent and halogen bulbs like they were going out of fashion before we swapped to LEDs.  Cheaper PSUs tend to die early too.

Have reported it to UKPN and whilst they agreed it wasn’t right, they didn’t seem to want to do much about it!

I switched to LED largely because the compact fluorescents were burning out after 2-6 months.  What's annoying as they don't seem to be designed for the EU spec at all, I noticed they were labeled 220-240v, so my area being consistently above that was over-stressing the PSUs.

I had a limited source as I insist on daylight in my room as I have enough fatigue as it is without my room lulling me to sleep with warm white.  Now I'm exclusively LIFX bulbs in my room so can pick and choose at will.  A few of those died but were replaced under warranty and touch-wood have been good since.

[sevenlayermuddle]

It is dangerous to make any assumptions about sanity or adequacy of EU rules and regulations.   

Even so I’d dare to assume that, to qualify for a CE mark, whilst the label might refer to nominal voltage ranges, the bulbs would need to operate as far above or below the tolerance of nominal supply for all markets in which they are sold, which of course extends significantly above 240V in UK, and significantly below 220V in Europe. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

I assumed that too, but as it was literally frying the capacitors due to excess heat, it seems not.

Its a known thing that compact fluorescent PSUs dramatically increase their heat output as the input voltage gets higher, they aren't designed (I'm not even sure they can be in the space available) for the same wide voltage range as LED drivers are.

It kinda makes sense when you think about the size of the PSUs for full sized florescent tubes.  Clearly compromises are made for the compact ones.