Ceiling Spotlights to LEDs

[Bonnybella]

Hello Forum Members

I have 24 ceiling spotlights in my home and am thinking of changing them for LEDs in order to reduce my electricity bills.
I asked an electrician and he as quoted me £900 to supply and fit the 24 lights!!! I am a complete novice but would like to do this myself without killing myself or burning the house down.
The lights I have currently have transformers and are 50W bulbs each.
I would also like to replace the chrome rings.

I am thinking of buying the fittings myself and fitting them.
Can anyone tell me how to do this?
Do I need to change the transformers? And what type of LED fittings I should buy?

Any help would be greatly appriciated.

Thanks

 

[alan333]

I changed some of my 240 volt mains power 50 watt GU10's to LED equivalent bulbs. I bought them on ebay. Sorry I can't remember exactly how much I paid but at a guess I'd say a couple/few quid each. They've been fitted for about 2 years now and I've not had any problems. They were direct replacements and therefore simply screwed in where the old bulbs came out, with no changing of holders or fitting of transformers etc. Obviously mine aren't in a zone which is required to be 12 volt tho. Perhaps if yours are similar it might be an idea to do away with the lowered voltage and do the same.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Sounds like a couple of days work.

Changing the downlights is not just the "rings" its the whole fitting, and you'd need to find some the same size hole or cost on making each one bigger to suit (you can't make them smaller).

So that brings it down to about £20 per LED downlight, not so bad. But yes, you could do it yourself. How hard can it be?

 

[ericmark]

There are transformers and there are inverters often also called transformers. With a transformer it is simple unplug the tungsten and plug in the LED however with the inverter there is a minimum as well as maximum so they would require changing.

Transformers are heavy and inverter is comparison are light but I have tried to work out a way to work out which are fitted without finding the device and other than measuring the frequency which is well beyond DIY can't think of a way without reading details on the device or feeling how heavy they are.

The other point is angle of beam. Spot lights are as name implies designed to give out a spot of light but the angle of that spot varies and although you can find with the more expensive lamps the angle often you don't know until you fit them what the angle is.

Where a transformer change would be required then moving to GU10 would mean no transformer is required but that means some re-wiring.

Bulb prices vary from a 0.58W (read that as candle) from Pound World at yes you guessed £1 to a pair of 1.4W lamps from Lidi at £5 to £17 for a 5.5W from screwfix.

As the size increases the price sores Toolstation do a 7.5W at 40 deg angle at £16 and it is the angle which can present a problem and for spot lights to be used as general lighting one has to bounce the light off a white surface so this may be the time to fit more appropriate lighting.

In general the low output bulbs work great when spread around the room but not so good when all grouped together. Look at hot countries where CFL were used well before here with more temperate climate and you will often see 9 lights per room split between two switches 3 on one and 6 on the other giving as a result three levels of lighting.

However to convert out homes needs some re-wiring and that in turn means re-decoration most don't want to do this just to save a few pounds. Florescent lamps are hard to work out as the tube coating and the control gear means one 32W florescent can produce double the output of another 32W florescent so figures as to which are best florescent or LED can be confusing. However in last few days got some new LED lamps and I have to admit compared with CFL around double the light output. But the 22W florescent at the top of my stairs with emergency back-up using HF ballast would need a whole array of LED lights to replace it and is a really good unit. Been up for well over 20 years and replace the orignal second hand tube last year.

However the 8W CFL I fitted 18 in dinning and living room 3 years ago have only 9 of the orignal lamps left and are now far dimmer then when fitted so the 1.4W LED fitted this week is as bright as the CFL. If Lidi do them again I'll be there in a flash and replace the lot.

Fitted a electronic 2D in my mothers kitchen mainly as no earth and needed a double insulated fitting and at 22W reasonable high ceiling a single light is fine. however would not want to fit in living room may do the job but looks too clinical.

I am sure they do but not noticed LED lamps getting dimmer with age. However with any florescent that is a problem and they do get dimmer and dimmer with age.

Early LED I tried were failures but have to admit now it's a very different story but at £900 you are looking at a lot of work and I question if retaining 50mm spot lights is really cost effective. I would want to look at all options first.

 

[flameport]

I am thinking of buying the fittings myself and fitting them.
Can anyone tell me how to do this?
Do I need to change the transformers? And what type of LED fittings I should buy?

To the shops and buy:
24 of these: http://www.toolstation.com/shop/d220/sd3206/p40260
24 of these: http://www.toolstation.com/shop/d220/sd3276/p33239
24 of these: http://www.toolstation.com/shop/d190/sd3071/p86064
8 of these: http://www.toolstation.com/shop/d190/sd2460/p85099
10m of this: http://www.toolstation.com/shop/d190/sd2730/p25266
Some of this: http://www.toolstation.com/shop/d190/sd2730/p41371
That lot will be over £400.

Then:
Switch off power
Remove old light and transformer from ceiling.
If the installation is up to the usual standards, remove sticky insulation tape covered connection mess / wires twisted together / shonky brown junction box with no strain relief etc. as well.
After making a note of which wires connect to what, disconnect old transformer / junction box / whatever else from mains wiring.
Prepare the mains wiring ends properly and connect into a terminal strip (3 or 4 terminals depending on how many wires there are).
Connect short piece of cable (40cm would be a sensible choice) from new light fitting to terminal strip.
All bare earth wires must be sleeved with the green/yellow sleeving. Some wires might require red or brown sleeve.
Enclose terminal strip in chocbox, ensuring all cables are properly secured.
Fit light into ceiling hole, ensuring chocbox and cables are kept well away from the light. If there is a big wedge of insulation directly above, far more work is now required to avoid overheating or fire.
Should be tested as well, but for DIY this seems rather unlikely.
Fit LED lamp into new light.

After that, repeat for the other 23 lights, or until it's too dark to see, or until your arms fall off from being held above your head for too long.
Hopefully you haven't got the wiring wrong, causing your entire house to be without lighting.

If any of these are in a bathroom or similar, other types of fitting may be required.
Also assumes the holes in the ceiling are a suitable size for those particular lights, and removing the old lights doesn't cause damage to the ceiling.
The old transformers must be disposed of properly, as they are electronic waste. Shoving them in the bin is not allowed.