Two things about my halogen downlights
Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023 at 10:36pm
I have recently learned two things about the halogen downlights I have in my kitchen.
First is how much power they use. While I do not have a direct measurement like I have for my dishwasher or washing machine, by watching the demand figure from my smart meter (updated every 8 seconds or so) I was able to confirm that they use 300W. This makes sense because there are six of them and they are rated for 50W each.
The second was that after almost 13 years I noticed that from my backyard I could see light in my roofspace through gaps in the tiles. Opening up the access hatch in the laundry I was able to confirm that a decent amount of light was coming from the back of the halogen fittings.
So they use a lot of power, light up the roof unnecessarily and probably get quite hot. It is also time to replace these with LED versions.
However this is proving to be not as simple as I hoped. These are 12V globes and when I tried replacing them with LED versions the lights come on but immediately turn off. The typical reason for this being that the drivers are not compatible. I think I need to replace the whole fixture with an LED version, there are few options at different price points, but all are around 8 to 10W. These days I much prefer 60W to 300W
I have a short (but growing) list of tasks for an electrician, this is now on that list.
