UK - Changing G9 Halogen Bulbs to G9 LED

[LENNYLENNY16]

Good Morning,

I've used this forum for advice many times but this is my first time posting so I hope that this community can help!

We're renovating a house and we are looking at replacing all of our existing G9 halogen bulbs in various light fittings with G9 LED's for the obvious reasons.

I've tried a simple swap out of the bulbs but many of the new LED G9s flicker when the switch is turned on.

Each light fitting has a halogen transformer within and 5 hanging pendants that house the G9 bulbs.

The question I have is can I simply remove the halogen transformer from the light fitting and then either:

1. Wire the fitting directly to the 6A lighting circuit cable? So the fitting will be mains connected and the in-built G9 drivers will take care of the load?

2. Connect an LED driver in place of the halogen transformer?

I hope the question is clear and not a stupid one! Because contrary to popular belief I know that there IS such a thing as a stupid question! I just hope that mine here doesn't qualify!
I will naturally use my sparky to do the work but wanted to do some homework and get the opinions of this forum first.

Thanks in advance.
Lee

 

[Avo Mk8]

Could I ask for some clarifications please?
What is the voltage of your original G9 halogen bulbs? Are they not mains voltage, 230V?
What if any information is written on the 'halogen transformer'?
When you say the LED versions flicker, is that with the light switch 'on' or 'off'? (I know you say 'on', but just wanted to check that was right!)

 

[loz2754]

Does the voltage of the G9 LED bulbs match the voltage of the transformer? For example 12 volts? An LED 230 volt bulb will not work if the transformer is for 12 volt bulbs (though they may flicker).
Are you using a dimmer switch? If so, this may cause further problems.

 

[loz2754]

Oops, beaten to it! ......

 

[Avo Mk8]

Some possibilities come to mind:

As Loz suggests, have you put 230V LED's in the fitting when it requires low voltage bulbs?

If you've used the correct voltage LED bulbs, the halogen transformer in the light fitting might be an electronic device and not provide the correct output when only lightly loaded by the LED's. Best remedy would be to replace with an appropriate driver for the LED's

If it is the case that the halogen bulbs are low voltage, I don't think it is a good idea to simply connect the internal wiring of the light fitting to mains. It would have been designed and tested for low voltage and there might be a safety issue just wiring it directly to 230V.

 

[littlespark]

The time it would take to test transformers, replace, test again, maybe change some lamp holders because hot halogens will have made them brittle…..

You may as well buy a new fitting