Just moved house – yay!

Having issues with the LED spot lights…. – boo!

I’ve not dealt with LED house lights before other than the standard things you just put into normal domestic fittings.

All the bulbs are MR16 G5.3 type.

Issue 1

When I turn the kitchen led spot lights on with a normal non-dimmer switch they tripe the RCD for the LED lighting ring. Reset the RCD, turn them on again. They come on fine.

Going to swap out the bulbs and see if that solves it but any other ideas?

Issue 2

We have some dimmer switches and the some of the bulbs are flickering.

I think switching to dimmable bulbs should solve this (based on other stuff I have found in the house the previous occupant probably just fitted anything lying around), if it doesn’t I’ll probably fit new switches.

Sound about right?

Get a load of new dimmable bulbs and put them in the fittings in issue 1.

If the problem goes away you can either leave them or get some non-dimmable bulbs. If the problem doesn’t go away your have a wiring issue.

Replace the flickering bulbs in issue 2 with the new dimmable bulbs that you have already bought and see if the issue goes away.  if it does it was the bulbs, if it doesn’t it’s the switch that’s not correct/faulty.

Are these 12v LEDs – I think the MR16s are??

Were they in there when you moved in, or have you replaced the halogens with LEDs?

If they were halogens, then they are likely to have be driven with a 12V AC power supply. You need DC power supplies for the LEDs.

I replaced the MR11 halogens in our bathroom with LEDs a few months back & they would do this weird thing where they flashed on & off in a strobing fashion (perhaps 2-5Hz) when initially turned on, depending on how quickly you pulled the switch cord. If you pulled it gently, they were fine, but it you yanked them on, they would flash.
It wasn’t until I had this happen that I checked the power adaptor & realised it was AC, not DC.

Swapping for a DC adaptor, sorted it.

Yeah they are the 12v jobs.

The LEDs were here when we moved in (2 days ago).

IME 12v lights are generally a bit crap.  We had 12v halogens and all sorts of problems with the power supplies dying, melted wires, etc.

Swapped everything (>50 lights) over to 240v GU10 LEDs and no probems since – much, much  better.

IME 12v lights are generally a bit crap.  We had 12v halogens and all sorts of problems with the power supplies dying, melted wires, etc.

I could be wrong, but I think this is more of an issue with halogens, than LED. Halogens are typically 20-35w each, so running at anywhere from 1.5-3A each (12v ones) & generating a lot of heat at the same time.

The halogens I replaced in the bathroom have gone from 20W to 4W each, so the demand on the power supply is lower, the current demand is lower & there is barely any heat generated.

But – having said all that, if I was starting from scratch I would be looking for a solution that ditched the separate power supplies & just wired straight into the mains.

Yeah they are the 12v jobs.

The LEDs were here when we moved in (2 days ago).

Unless it’s a new build, the chances are they were originally halogens & have been replaced with LED. I’d be trying to get access to the power supply & checking it’s DC. Even if they run with an AC power supply, it’ll dramatically shorten their life from what I have read.