On Oct 30, 11:48*am, "KD" wrote:
"KD" wrote in message

. uk...

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

Thanks in advance,
Keith, who previous struggled remembering which fittings were BC, SBC, ES
or SES, never mind this new fangled halogen nonsense

Hi all,
Just a follow up to my original post. *I've discovered each of my
downlighters has it's own transformer. *So much for using one halogen to up
the power that the transformer is required to deliver, this would only work
with multiple bulbs per transformer. *However, a number of LEDs claim that
they can work with existing transformers, rather than LED drivers, but with
half the expected bulb life. *So, I took the plunge ... *I replaced 3 spots
upstairs directly with LEDs. *The LEDs come on, look OK and don't flicker
.... however, my bedroom radio now suffers terrible interference. *Now to
figure out how to stop that ....

Cheers,
Keith

0.1uF capacitor in series with 1 ohm resistor, fitted to the LV feed.
It'll work best near LED or transformer, try both to find out which.


NT