Help with replacing MR16/GU5.3 Halogen Bulbs

[BenR1987]

Hi,

I have been looking around all over the web and had a few seraches here.

Basically I have recently bought a house and there are Halogen lights fitted into the celing in all rooms (Lounge, Dining Room, Kitchen & 3 Bedrooms). In total there are 22 bulbs. I've taken out a few of the buls and they are all the GU5.3 fitments.

I would like to get these all replaced with LED bulbs for energy comsuption reasons. From reading around I understand there must be a converter connected to the existing bulbs to change the 240v AC to 12v DC. I would like to change these with the least amount of trouble, hopefully not having to replace with LED Drivers.

So, my question, I have found these bulbs (here) which I can buy for about £6 each. The description in the PDF says "Crompton 12V MR16 LED lamps will operate with all 12V DC drivers and most 12V AC transformers".

Does this mean it should just be straight swap of the bulbs? Or am I reading it incorrectly.

Thanks for any help.

Ben

 

[jason 77]

What are the current halogen bulbs rated at? are they 240v or 12v ?

 

[m.pille.led]

Hi,
Yes, you are correct! If the bulbs are 12v dc or ac, and the previous halogen where 12v, then they will basically work in all cases.

One thing you have to keep in mind, and as Jason 77 has already asked, What is the diference in current draw from the halogen to led?

This is importante because the PSU (power supply or constant current/voltage supply), wich supplies the 12v might not work well with the new Leds.

This happens in most cases with the new electronic controlled PSU. wich have integrated energy save mode, wich jump on when current draw is none or very low. As you can imagine these PSUs are made for the halogens , so the energy save funktion is made for operations with halogen bulbs.
Now as you can calculate a standart 50w halogen bulb has a current draw of ~ 4.1Amp , and a 5w led comes in with only ~ 0.41Amps
You can see the led draw is very little compared to the halogen. So in this cases the PSU thinks the lights are off and switches to energy save mode, as there is still a load (led) the voltage will drop and the power supply goes to operation mode again. And this cycle repeats itself,
the result are blinking or strobing led bulbs.

As I said before this usually hapens only with the newer PSUs with power save-mode (of course not all of them). The older PSUs wich are simple constant voltage and current supplies don`t presente this problems (just because there is no power save funktion)

But keep in mind, the only way to know for shure is to test them in your own sistem, so you are shure if it does or does not work in perfection with the already instaled PSUs.

I hope this was not too confuse for you, if any other question, just let us know!
All the best for your upgrades
Mark