In article ,
Derek ^ writes:
Some imported dining room furniture we've got came equipped with top
lighting in 4 display cabinets. The electronic transformers have all
quit and the lamp fitting itself takes a 10w capsule bulb mounted
sideways on in a very shallow fitting. It is *absolutely impossible*
to replace a bulb with the fitting in the top of the units without
either bending the pins or touching the quartz. If you do bend the
pins IME the bulb will have a short life even if it works initially.

I either hold them with a piece of tissue, or if they're in
a polythene envelope (e.g. Maplin's ones, which are also the
cheapest sine CPC stopped selling them) just cut the end off
the polythene which I use to hold the lamp until it's in the
holder.

So I went to "Ring" lighting and came away with a set of 20 watt MR11
downlighters @ 3 for 8 quid in their discontinued section.

On reading the bit of paper that came packed inside it says they
should not be mounted on a combustible surface. The display cabinets
are made of wood. :-(

I then noticed that LED MR11 lamps are available, less than 2 watts so
not a fire hazard. £7.50 each, (I could live with that if I never had

Bare in mind that LED's are same efficiency as halogen lamps,
so these will give off the same light as a 2W halogen would
have. This might be concentrated into a very narrow beam so
that on-beam intensity is high, but unless you want that
feature, they are generally a disaster.

to change one again!) but on the websites that sell them they say
ordinary transformers can't be used, the special electronic
transformers needed are £14.99 each. That's taking the Mick.

Surely 12 volts, 2 watts to drive 6 LEDs, an ordinary regulated mains
adapter would fit the bill or am I missing something here? Apparently
the LED lamps *are* AC/DC.

LED's need current limited supplies. It depends if the lamps
themselves contain the current limiting function, or if they
require the supply transformer circuitry to do it. Both types
exist, and the ones with external current limited supplies
are likely to be brighter, as that potential heat source is
removed from the locality of the LEDs.

Oh, and BTW the electronic transformer that came with the RING
lighting kit is duff. :-((

My impression is that Ring source cheap, rather than high quality
parts. I've had some good Ring items, but also some extremely
poor ones.

--
Andrew Gabriel