LED’s - what did I do wrong?

[hairyben]

yes to be fair I wouldn't bother with 12v indoors any more, the problem is you have 3 electronic devices in the LED lamp, transformer and dimmer, the latter two generally not designed with ELD in mind, all trying to interface with each other. Swap to GU10 and make all the lamps 230v, either via cheap lamp holders only or use it as an excuse to refresh all the fittings or upgrade them to fire/acoustic rated, there's much more choice and availability of GU10 LED lamps and it removes a point of failure in the transformer too.

As for the shorting - I've seen cheapy GU10 LED lamps go "hard short" that wont let you reset a circuit breaker. Which as a spark is concerning... I'd avoid the cheapest to be honest - you can buy reasonably branded lamps reasonably cheap now. I wouldn't fit anything less even when it's included in "my" price (ie I could try to save a bit if I wanted)

[mickmcpaddy]

I've never seen a 12v LED replacement lamp work right yet, complete waste of time in my book and personally I wouldn't even try fitting one.

[sparkythecat]

I often wonder why anyone bothers with dimmer switches in a kitchen. If it's too gloomy to see what I'm doing, I put a light on, so I don't burn myself or cut my fingers. I never feel the need to have a light half on.

[hairyben]

mickmcpaddy said:

I've never seen a 12v LED replacement lamp work right yet, complete waste of time in my book and personally I wouldn't even try fitting one.

I favour the 8w integral branded ones for garden lighting - being able to run 12v everywhere is so much more robust than loads of 230v on RCD's in a garden. Good bulb at over 600 lumens. Not tried the dimmable version though, and they must lag terribly as you can only get 3 on a 50w tranny. sad thing is they've given up making 12v spots so I have to convert gu10 fittings!

Wouldn't bother with 12v retro fit bulbs anywhere else though

[craig1912]

If the halogens have been in there a long time the wiring can get brittle and snap - happened to ours. We replace all low voltage with 220v leds in lounge, dining room and kitchen.

The 10 year old dimmer switches in the kitchen work with the leds but don’t dim very low. The 6 year old dimmers in the lounge/dining room didn’t and had to be replaced ( the range on the new ones is far greater than the kitchen).

[mickmcpaddy]

hairyben said:

mickmcpaddy said:

I've never seen a 12v LED replacement lamp work right yet, complete waste of time in my book and personally I wouldn't even try fitting one.

I favour the 8w integral branded ones for garden lighting - being able to run 12v everywhere is so much more robust than loads of 230v on RCD's in a garden. Good bulb at over 600 lumens. Not tried the dimmable version though, and they must lag terribly as you can only get 3 on a 50w tranny. sad thing is they've given up making 12v spots so I have to convert gu10 fittings!

Wouldn't bother with 12v retro fit bulbs anywhere else though

That's off a proper 12 volt supply though I'm guessing, not from a chopped up electronic 12 volts out of a downlight transformer.

[mickmcpaddy]

I used to use Denmans standard dimmers along with Screwfix LAP LED lamps, yes I know LAP crap, but they used to dim absolutely perfectly and they were quite bright as well with a nice colour rendering, not had a failure yet either. But the last lot I fitted flickered like mad so something has changed.

[boyse7en]

megaphone said:

I would remove the transformers and fit 230v LED GU10 lamps. You should be able to use the existing fitting, you'll need to change the lamp holder to GU10, something like this

https://www.screwfix.com/p/luceco-gu10-gz10-lampho...

Not seen those before. Knew it was worth asking. Thanks

Any special way of wiring the lamps? just run the switched 240v feed from one to the next, or better to run through some sort of junction box with 12 outlets?

[Jakg]

mickmcpaddy said:

I've never seen a 12v LED replacement lamp work right yet, complete waste of time in my book and personally I wouldn't even try fitting one.

I have a 12v LED & Transformer from LED Hut and it works fine (bathroom so 12v only)

Had lots of bad experiences with the cheap ones though.

[hairyben]

mickmcpaddy said:

That's off a proper 12 volt supply though I'm guessing, not from a chopped up electronic 12 volts out of a downlight transformer.

Mostly varilight transformers that are zero rated eg 0-50. the 50w will do 3x 8w then starts to play up so they must lag a bit, but thats not unusual for LED bulbs in my experience. 12v ac LED is all a bit transient in general though - I only bother trying to get 12v working to cut down on 230v in the garden. The big companies really need to agree on an ELV standard for garden lights etc

Edited by hairyben on Saturday 2nd December 11:17