If your house was built or renovated between the late nineties and around 2012, there is a good chance you have halogen downlights. They were fitted everywhere, often a dozen or more per room, and each one draws 50 watts.
The running cost
Ten halogen downlights running four hours a night is roughly two kilowatt hours a day just for lighting one room. The LED equivalents that produce the same light output draw around 6 to 9 watts each. The saving is not marginal, it is close to an order of magnitude, and lighting is often the second or third biggest load in a house after hot water and air conditioning.
The fire risk is the real argument
A halogen lamp converts most of its energy to heat, and that heat goes up into the roof space. Insulation batts pushed too close to a fitting, or dust and debris settling around it, create exactly the conditions that cause roof fires. Fire services have been warning about downlight related fires for years.
Every halogen downlight in your ceiling is a 50 watt heater pointed at your insulation.
Modern LED fittings run cool enough to be rated for direct contact with insulation, which also means your insulation can actually do its job rather than being cut back around each fitting.
What a conversion involves
In most homes it is straightforward. We remove the halogen fitting and transformer, fit a compliant LED unit into the existing hole where the diameter matches, and connect it properly. Where the new fitting is a different size, we cut a neat new opening and make good.
- Removal of old fittings and transformers, not just a lamp swap
- Fittings rated for insulation contact where required
- Dimmable fittings matched to a compatible dimmer, which is where most DIY conversions go wrong
- Colour temperature chosen deliberately per room
Get the colour temperature right
This is the decision people regret, not the brand. Warm white around 3000K suits living areas and bedrooms and reads closest to the halogen light you are used to. Neutral white around 4000K suits kitchens, laundries and bathrooms where you want clarity. Mixing them randomly through a house looks wrong even if nobody can say why.
While the ceiling is open
If we are already in the roof space, it is the cheapest time to add things you have been meaning to do: a ceiling fan, an extra data point, moving a switch, or bringing your smoke alarms up to standard. Doing these together saves a second callout.
Should you do it yourself?
No. Replacing a lamp is one thing, replacing a fitting means working on fixed wiring, which is licensed work in Queensland. Beyond the legal question, the transformers left in the ceiling and the dimmer compatibility issues are the two things that turn a simple job into a callout.
See our LED lighting service for what we install, including strip lighting and outdoor lighting.
Want a price on converting your downlights?
Tell us roughly how many fittings you have and which rooms, and we will give you a fixed price per fitting.
Written by Scott Gross, licensed electrician and founder of PMU Electrical, servicing the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane. Licence 146529.