Morning all,
I've been told by my electrician to replace all my halogen lights with LED lights given the potential fire safety risk and that they will also reduce my operational billing. I have 10 lights in all and the overall fixed cost for the lights/transformers would be close to $400 plus labour installation costs.
I just wanted to get some advice on whether the fire safety risk is a significant one and the overall cost benefits of using LED.
I know this forum is more around new builds, but as I'm doing a bit of renovation, would appreciate any advice given.
Thanks,
Steve
Hey Steve,
There is an inherent fire risk with halogen lights due to the operating temperatures they can reach (300-400C). To reduce the risk of fire, heat guards should be used and you should ensure that there is adequate ventilation and no loose materials, insulation or other combustible materials near your halogen downlights. Did your electrician actually go into your roof to check on these things?
LEDs are definitely a better alternative - LEDs operate at much lower temps, up to 90% less, and cost up to 25% less in terms of operating costs. To give you an idea of operating costs, you could save anywhere $10-20 per light annually, depending on usage, so $100-200 per year for 10 lights you mentioned.
If you are looking at living your current home for a while and would rather have peace of mind, IMO it would be worth changing to LEDs. If you decided to stick with your current halogen lights, I would definitely check on the conditions in your roof.
Thanks, greatly appreciated. He had a quick look at one of my lights which was causing the problems but didn't spend too much time. I don't have any insulation and I try not to keep too many lights on in the house. However, given the risk of over-heating and fire, its probably worth looking into.
I just changed all of the lighting in the place that I'm renovating. I went for all lights upstairs to be removed and replaced with LED downlights. We couldn't put the downlights downstairs without chasing out the slab ceiling to put the wiring so we built a bulkhead for the kitchen for LED downlights and just used nice light assemblies with LED globes in them for the rest of the rooms downstairs. I'd never go for a halogen globe/assembly again. Better, brighter light and less power consumption!