We have 50w halogen lights x 10 in our kitchen. Does anyone know if i can just swap these, they are the MR16 type, with LED lights?? Or do i need a transformer and if so is that costly.

Ta

Transformer required.
Cost... bungalow not too scary
House... hmm, could be quite scary depending on your wiring and access to place aformentioned transformer.
I'm assuming you have flush-fitting lights here?


As for 50w Halogens x 10... I'm gussing you;
A - like a lot of light
B - Your kitchen is at least 3 times the size of mine
C - You never have to leave stuff out to defrost for very long
D - Your 'leccy bills are rather high


R d

Dormer bungalow!! House in other words!

The lights were in when we moved. There are 5 per switch so there are only 5 on at one time...well 4 actually as one bulb has gone in each set!
I thought it would mean transformer...just my luck....may take a couple more out at this rate!

Thanks for reply

There's several ways of doing this.


1. CFL replacements. If I were you I'd be quite tempted to do this. assuming you can find some CFL's that fit...
2. Buy drop-in MR16 replacements and fit them. I wouldnt do this as there's no heatsinking and they'll be dim in a couple of years
3. make your own, transformer based approach. Tricky to get a decent sized transformer without spending silly money
4. make your own, capacitor based approach. Caps are cheap, just have to do a bit of reading on AC ripple current etc and this page.

Only attempt to make your own if the body of the lamps is exposed to air. If they're buried in the ceiling then chances are whatever you make the LED's will burn themselves up within a couple of years- LED's generate heat, and if this heat has nowhere to go, then it will destroy the LED's. LEDs are great but only if there's air flow to cool them. If they're designed for right from the start they'll probably outlive the house. If you're trying to wedge them in later then you're going to struggle to get something that lasts more than a couple of years.

Cheers Jarl...the lights do sit flush in the ceiling. What are CFL's?

Do wanna try and save some money!

CFL =Compact Fluorescent Lamps

I have 12 flush fitting lights in the kitchen, went with units that take a GU10 lamps, you can get 240v LED and CFL bulbs to fit.

LED have come on a bit but still give a slightly weird light, so I have mix of both, LED fire up quick, the CFL take longer to get up to speed but give a better working light.

Right folks are these plug and play?? IE. Is the transformer built in??

http://www.saving-light-bulbs.co.uk/energy-saving/mr16-7w

Notice the big white bit that's not the actual tube on all of those? That's the transformer or ballast. It looks to me like the replacements you linked are just the tubes and you need to install the transformer separately as there's not enough space to cram the whole thing in. Bear in mind that the lights you linked are 250 lumens each - less than half the output of your current lights. I'd go for these if I were you:

http://www.saving-light-bulbs.co.uk/energy-saving/mr16-11w

It is possible to get plug and play replacements:
http://www.saving-light-bulbs.co.uk/energy-saving/gu10-11w

but they're ~30mm longer than standard M16 bulbs because the transformer is built in.

sounds like they are G10 240v halogens at 50w,
just replace with G10 240v led lights,

G10 is the cap for 240v,
mr16 type, referes to the 12v type,
so theres no chance of putting a 12v into a 240v fitting

if they are the two pin type you have 12v and a transformer allready
look on here at the different types

http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/household-bulbs...n30kqhbs9pa9i63

Cheers folks....the GU 10 replacements have a different connections so they are out.

Will look at the ones with the transformer and see how it goes.

Thanks for the advice

I realise this is slightly off topic but for those looking for dim-able GU10 type LED's not built into the wall (I have these in my office and bathroom) are these any good Jarl et al?

Dimmable LED GU10 4 Wide Angle Warm White 5w=40W

i can,t fathom out what type you have?
if not the GU10, with the small bolt type pins, [240v ]
and you have the ones with the two pin type, 50mm diameter lens, 50w
these are 12v type, so replacement leds ones should fit straight in, there should be a transformer somewhere,
a transformer supplying 10 halogens at 4amps plus each is going to be a bit big, and a bit heavy!
these days , small electronic transformers are fitted near the bulbs, but some of the 12v led relacements are not compatible
with them, they might need a dedicated one , so more costs!!

Hi Old Dude.

The ones i have are the two sharp pin ones..MR16 50watt halogen. The GU10s have the bolt like connection.
My mate has these and he has done a direct replacement and work no probs.
I wish i knew more!!! I'm still considering trying one and see if it works!!

any writing on the bulb?
hopfully it should tell you,..

Only thing on there mate is EXN+C 12V50W36DEGREES 13272

Where does the heat go? If the fittings isn't built into the wall with a bit of bodging you can heatsink a custom unit directly to the chassy (PLEASE earth it...). Otherwise I'd stick to CFL until complete LED units come out with a decent thermal route to the outer, metal, casing. You'll never make up the cost difference between an LED and a CFL before the LED unit burns out. Exceptions to this are places where the light isn't on for very long, like bathrooms. The LED will switch on immediately and if it's not on for a long time won't have a chance to build up enough heat to start damaging itself. If you turn a CFL off before it has a chance to warm up then it actually decreases the life of the CFL. (hence why CFL's in bathrooms tend not to last very long)

OK sounds like a no-no for now then, well at least the ones in the bathroom kick out enough heat to keep things toasty in there and in my office they are on a dimmer so I'll just keep them down a bit!

so you have 12 volts already,
just sort out a mr16 led type and put it in,
warm white, or cool white??
they do give a cast off!!
it could depend on the decour etc of the room,
colour of the tiles, units etc effecting the reflected light,
any specialised lighting shops in your area, to have a look,...
be prepared to argue the toss with the missus, as they are,nt to everyones taste,
especially when you switch them on for the first time, [ and you start to get the blame, cos it was your idea in the first place ]
but you do get use to them,..

Another reason I currently don't recommend LED units. They use outdated and poor quality LED's. Modern LED's will give better colour rendition than an incan (ever tried to sort navy blues and blacks under an incan light?!) and can give the same colour temperature (read: Yellowness of the light) as an incan if you desire. I could make an LED unit that in a blind test you'd prefer to both incandescent and CFL lighting, and be more efficient. But would you prefer the ones that are being sold currently? No way.


Give it a couple of years and people should be selling complete LED units like this:



which will switch on instantly, be more efficient than CFL's, give more light output than a high wattage incan, be totally dimmable, with a variable colour temperature (who else here hates waking up when it's dark and turning on a horrifically yellow CFL? Great in the summer, but in the winter when it's all grey light its nasty). The tech is available now, it's just a case of it being implemented by mfg's.

Maybe I should start a lighting company?

Thanks guys...really appreciate your help.

Will buy some cheap warm whites to start and work from there..unless that sounds like a bad idea!!

I had been running Led MR16 lamps in my old house for at least 5 years in my kitchen without any problems. Try BLT Direct I have made several orders from them and not had any bad lamps. I use a mix of Daylight and Warm White, Daylight for central areas and lights that you would use as a main light this time of year and Warm White for accent wall lighting for in the evening to help your brain to start getting ready to sleep.

All the light fittings that I will be fitting in the new house will be chosen with Led's in mind.

You would be the man to do it! Amazing how long it can take manufacturers to get around to this sort of thing they really are behind the envelope aren't they! Having said that consumers can be rubbish too, like you make a better mousetrap and do they beat a path to your door? No they wait twenty years before they get around to it...

Are these any good?

On Scan website on their Today Only section they have some LED lights.

Just click on the link and scroll down to the lights

Emprex Lighting @ Scan

Can't see anything? But I'd say it's almost certainly not very good. If you seriously want LED lighting that will last the rest of your life, PM me and I'll make you something. Otherwise, buy CFL. I would recommend you wait a couple of years for LED's to become really good rather than jumping too early for something that's good.

I don't want to sound like someone who's saying 'if you don't get it from me it's gonna be rubbish', but anything you buy from a shop is going to be rubbish. For example, on that website I found:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/emprex-led-...-45w-warm-white

4.5 watts, 9 LED's. So that immediately tells you the power handling of those LED's is 4.5/9 which is half a watt each. Half a watt LED's aren't last year, they're 4 years old, and that's being nice (2 years ago we had P7's capable of 10+ watts each, before that cree XR-E's were capable of 3W each comfortably, and they were around for a loooong time). 4 years old, lets be generous and give 70 lumens/watt (generous considering they're warm white LED's which are typically less efficient). 70*4.5 = 315 lumens. And that's at a low junction temperature- increase the junction temp of the LED (eg, as if there were nowhere for the heat to escape to. Which there isn't) and it'll get even worse. Your average incan will kick out 900 lumens. Need I say more? 3 of those would draw 15 watts, which puts you at exactly the same place as you'd be with a CFL. Except in 5 years they'll probably be putting out 200 lumens each, and they set you back £30 more than buying 1 CFL....