12v Halogen Lighting woes i.e. in Kitchen & Bathroom are

[Dickie]

Not sure if this is the right place to be asking this question or not, please
point me to the right place if not….thanks.

Basically, we’ve had a load of building work done and our Electrician has replaced all lights in the Kitchen & Bathroom areas with low voltage 12 volt halogens (i.e. with transformers). Since they were installed, they are continually going wrong….transformers giving up….bulb holders getting
‘carboned up’ and needing re-seating etc etc. Our Electrician has said most of these fittings now come from China and are of poor quality and he’s at a loss what to do….he’s replaced many of them several times.

Just wondered if anyone had any recommendations on what to do or if there’s a particular ‘quality make’ we can use to solve this problems.

More than anything I need to get this fixed…for the sake of the marriage!

Cheers guys.

Richard.

😥

[kwatt]

Re: 12v Halogen Lighting woes i.e. in Kitchen & Bathroom

Not exactly the right place but, I happen to have seen this before and similar due to an interest in such things.

I’d expect that the carbon build up is heat related. Depending on the fitting there may well be not a lot you can do.

Transformers for LV lighting are a nightmare and your spark is right, there are loads of cheap ones out there that aren’t too brilliant.

We used to get the problem when looking to dim them, the cheaper ones can’t be dimmed and do all sorts of weird and wonderful tricks if you try to do that. The cheap ones also chuck out all manners of interference onto the power lines, are noisy and get warm, often very warm. I and others have found that it’s the heat that kills them, especially if you run them for extended periods of time.

And, that’s if you run them within the acceptable loads! Go outside the recommended loads for them and they’ll burn out at an alarming rate.

I’m sure your spark has done this but, it’s worth asking. Work out how many bulbs at what load you need to run then get a transformer that will cope with that plus at least 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} and it should be okay.

HTH

K.

[don]

Re: 12v Halogen Lighting woes i.e. in Kitchen & Bathroom

I don`t like them full stop, every day I get the same question in the shop “why do they keep going”?

Go for mains voltage GU10 they come in 35w, 50w and LED low energy. I have only replaced one in 18 months in our kitchen, much more reliable and saves you pennies into the bargain 8)

HTH

Don

[Author]

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