Insulating my loft with down lights – will this work safely?

[myk3]

Ok I have purchased a house recently and have had fire rated GU10 down lights fitted into the master bedroom. It is now winter and there is NO insulation in the loft and im freezing my arse off so want to move forward with insulating my loft.

To summarise:

I have 3 bedrooms upstairs only and no bathroom (downstairs bathroom).
I had a new plasterboard celling put up as the old one was falling down (soft woof material).
I have had 7 GU10 fire rated downlights fitted to this sealing
I have fitted 7w LED lamps to each of these downlights to reduce heat and of course save on electric bills.
The other 2 bedrooms have a centre ceiling light fixture so nothing is in the recess and thus no need to worry about heat from these fixtures and having to ventilate.
My joists are around 100mm deep

My plan is to use 50mm thick Celotex cut a few mm larger than the width of the joists (which are 400mm) so that they fit tightly in each of the ceiling joists and sit on top of the plasterboard ceiling. I will then cut a generous hole leaving around 50mm or more around each of the 7 down lights. I will ensure all cables are left on top of the Celotex and not in-between the celotex and plasterboard ceiling. I will then board up the whole loft

This will leave a 50 mm gape above the celotex and the top of the joist (where the loft board starts) giving the heat from the downlight plenty of ventilation.

Once the loft is fully boarded I will then ideally cover it in 100mm thick Celotex so that we can use the majority of the loft for storage. Depending on cost I may just lay thick roll of rockwool on top of the boards rather than the Celotex but I will see how I get on come the time.

So will this solution safely work with my LED downlifghts and provide sufficient ventilation and safety.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[kbdiy]

Try these http://www.aico.co.uk/images/stories/PDF_Documents/alc274 datasheet.pdf

 

[AronSearle]

Try these http://www.aico.co.uk/images/stories/PDF_Documents/alc274 datasheet.pdf[/QUOTE]

I've used these, with loads of insulation on top, and put in some led lights instead of incandescents as you have into the downlighters, been about 2 years now I think, nothing has blown up so far.

The only thing I would say about these loftcaps is that they are expensive, and easily damaged.

You could just make a square box from plasterboard, with a tight fitting hole for the cable, (I just couldnt be bothered), this would probably be easier to fit neatly in-between your celotex.

Someone in the leccy forum can probably tell you if this is safe in terms of cable overheating, don't take my word for it.

 

[Blagard]

I havehad fire rated GU10 down lights fitted into the master bedroom.

The first thing is the light fitting fire rating does nothing to help you on the ventilation requirements. It is there to maintain the fire rating of the ceiling (if it needs it) should you have a fire.

You have correctly identified it will need some ventilation space and so long as you follow the instruction the lights came with that should tell you home much space to allow you should be OK. You don't need to spend loads on those "dustbin" covers, but they are a quick and easy solution you can insulate around.

In practice your need for ventilation will actually be less with the LED lights fitted but as they are a GU10 fitting you are right to ensure the ventilation is there for a halogen light if it were ever fitted.

I suspect you already knew the answer from the details you provided!

 

[xr4x4]

http://www.juiceelectricalsupplies....mmaurora.asp?gclid=CJ6xs83F9roCFfHItAodvDgAhw