halogen down lights

chicken_food

halogen down lights

This may be a stupid place to ask this,but does anyone know where the cheapest place to buy these lights is? Im looking for about 10-12 of them. Some wedsite was carging about 600euro for 10. Iv checked argos etc but was looking for somewhere online. Cheers

Benster

Online - dunno. B&Q are selling them in packs of 5 for about €50.

Lex Luthor

they vary in price all over the place for different types, so best to know what you want and shop around. As Benster says, B&Q have a good selection.

patrido

i'd say your best bet is your local electrical wholesaler. N2 in Ashbourne had them for about 16 yoyos for the light fitting, lytlec electronic transformer and 50W bulb. that might have been ex vat.

i'd be wary of b&q - just check their transformer is a decent one. should be electronic, dimmable, soft start, and it should auto shut off in the event of overheating or short circuit, and auto reset. the lytlec 65W is hard to beat.

also put in one transformer per light fitting.

Lex Luthor

230V ones available now without the need for transformer

patrido

Lex Luthor wrote:

230V ones available now without the need for transformer

yeh, but the lamps are more expensive to replace, and have to be replaced more often. also, lv lamps are available in a wider variety of beam angles, as well as wattages. transformers offer several advantages like overheat protection, and much longer life if they are dimmed as well as soft start. mains GU10s tend to trip the whole circuit when they blow.

there are some mains LED and CFL appearing, which will offer huge energy savings and long life, but neither can be dimmed, and the colour doesn't seem quite as good as halogen. hopefully the technology will improve shortly, and then they will be the best option by far.

http://www.lew-host.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=31&products_id=59
http://www.lew-host.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=31&products_id=242

patrido

chicken_food wrote:

was looking for somewhere online. Cheers

tlc-direct

tapest

Hi Chicken_food
Patrido seem to know his stuff...Just a little extra. Most retail shops sell them in packs of three, with a single transformer and there is a limit of 20 watt per lamp. For the same cost ( or cheaper), fom electrical wholesale distributor (PM me if you want names, not sure I'm allowed to mention names here), you can get, as patrido says, 3 single lamps +holders +individual transfotmers. The wattage limit is 50 watt(very bright). My fear is that with the multipke packs of three, some muppet will forget and increase the wattage from 20 to 50 later on...ie 150 watt against recommended 60 watt.

PATRIDO, If you feel toes stepped on..apologies offered

Regards
t

patrido

tapest wrote:

PATRIDO, If you feel toes stepped on..apologies offered

nope, toes are fine

you're dead right, if you used a 60W traffo to feed 3 x 20W you can't change to 35W or 50W. a good traffo will shut off if overloaded like this, but in any event it would be better to put in a 150w traffo.

however, i would recommend going for one traffo per light fitting rather than sharing one between a few fittings. it might be a bit more expensive in the beginning, but it gives you the most flexibility, no problems with blown bulbs unbalancing the circuit, least amount of LV cabling (LV cables are much more prone to voltage drop over distance than mains, so the cables have to be shorter)

Stoner

Try
http://www.genesis13.com/
http://www.tradesman4electrical.co.uk/

Like the lads said , try to get sep traffos per fitting.
Also consider the Led fittings at lowe lights ( only about 6 euro a fitting for nice heavy fittings, you can put GU10, LV or LED lamps into the fitting)
note as you know LED are very dim so you need loads (but only 1 Watt lamps)

chicken_food

WOW! I wasnt expecting such informative responses! Iv priced 8 downlights and 4 adjustable downlights with transformers and bulbs for only 60odd incl next day delivery from uk. that is amazing. Id agree with getting a transformer for each light,you never can be too careful! Thanks again to everyone who replied,its really appreciated!

Stoner

Patrido,

have you used the GU10 CFLs,
do they fit in a standard fitting? any use etc?,
I use 13Watt PLS in my house but they are a big recess, but I'd like to cut the bill on my spots.
The LEDs lamps I have used are not really bright, we have used them in health centres etc and we can dim them if we use wire wound traffos, the blue lamps etc ( the trade on a lamp from lowe lights is 6.5 euro any colour, the best I've found in Ireland, but they are on holidays at the moment, small company, good prices)

patrido

Stoner wrote:

have you used the GU10 CFLs,
do they fit in a standard fitting? any use etc?,

No, I haven't used them yet. My gaf is still being first fixed.

I'm not sure about fitting. Products such as ...
http://www.lew-host.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=31&products_id=59
... claim to be "true size" GU10, so they should fit any fitting. However, I've heard that some similar products are too big to fit a standard fitting.

Also, the UK building regs require new builds to have a certain number of dedicated low energy light fittings, so that you cannot just swap the lamps as soon as the building control officer is gone home. you could fill the house with 1w LED lamps, and not meet the requirements. so for this reason there will be more and more low energy fittings and lamps available on uk websites that will not fit the standard fittings.

The only feedback I've got on the CFLs is that the output drops off as the unit ages.

Stoner wrote:

the trade on a lamp from lowe lights is 6.5 euro any colour, the best I've found in Ireland, but they are on holidays at the moment, small company, good prices)

do you have contact details for lowe?

Stoner

04 4550731
leds@iol.ie
www.loweleds.com

Like I said you wont get this week or next, its a pity, going to use em in a couple of nursing homes as night lights. I also noticed that the LEDs lamps on your site for 8.5 Stg claim to be better quality light. The lowe ones we use are the more common bluey white lamps

Benster

I haven't been reading this forum for a while, but I forgot to say in my earlier post that I went for mains powered lights, not transformer-connected. Reason being that my spark said they are easier to maintain. He said it's much easier to change a bulb than to replace a transformer if/when it goes, as I'll have them fitted in the upstairs ceiling so the transformers would be in the roofspace and not easy to get at.

Possibly some would have their own reasons for the opposite, but he's been at this years and knows what he's talking about.

B.

FX Meister

It's just a matter of popping the light down to change the transformer. Not all that hard. Mains ones are a lot cheaper, maybe that's why your soarks recommended them?

davelerave

Benster wrote:

I haven't been reading this forum for a while, but I forgot to say in my earlier post that I went for mains powered lights, not transformer-connected. Reason being that my spark said they are easier to maintain. He said it's much easier to change a bulb than to replace a transformer if/when it goes, as I'll have them fitted in the upstairs ceiling so the transformers would be in the roofspace and not easy to get at.

Possibly some would have their own reasons for the opposite, but he's been at this years and knows what he's talking about.

B.

i'm an electrician as well and i agree .the mains fittings tend to be totally enclosed at the back whereas the lv fittings are often open and can burn through wires later.also matching up dimmers and trafos can be problematic
and there sometimes is a humming noise in the ceiling from the trafos.i have been fitting lv downlights for the last while but am changing back to mains lights esp. since the energy saving /low heat bulbs came along.keep in mind also that by drilling holes and fitting lights you may interfere with the fire barrier that a plasterboard slab etc. provides

Hal1

Atlantic homecare are selling the halogen downlighter recesed ones 3 pack for €10, I got 2 sets of them in brass.