In article ,
"KD" writes:
Hi all,
A question in a similar area to Boicey's a few mintues ago....
I've just had a fun hour trying to figure out how to easily remove a GU 10
halogen downlighter from our kitchen ceiling after having bought some GU10
CFLs. One set of needle nosed pliers and a smashed up bulb later, I've
realised that they're 'MR16 GU 5.3 fittings' with Osram Decostars in them.
These seem to be low voltage. This surprised me a bit; I had thought that
only mains voltage lamps were dimmable and that these were 'mains voltage'.
I am obviously not an electrican
Anyway, I'd like to replace them with LEDs. A lot of LED MR16s say that
they're 'a direct replacement for my old inefficient bulbs'. Then, in the
small print, they mention LED drivers versus LV transformers. Given that I
didn't install the original halogens ... can I assume that each one
currently has it's own transformer ? thick question alert - do LV

You can assume there's one or more transformers.

halogens have to have transformers ? I assume so but would like to be sure.

Yes.

I was thinking of simply swapping them with some LED MR16 bulbs just in case
it works OK. Given John R's reply to the Econic 3w question, I'm just
wondering if it's even worth bothering as it'll cost around £30 for the room
I want to experiment with and I don't want to have to install either
transformers or drivers. Worth a shot ?

Even if they did work, the problem you'll have is that the LEDs are
nowhere near as bright as your existing lamps (at least, not unless
you are spending vastly more than £30 for the whole room), and they
may also be a sickly blue shade, which is really bad in a kitchen.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]