The Lemon Fool

We have Halogen GU5.3 bulbs in the kitchen of a holiday property. I see there are LED bulbs with the same fitting. Are they simple swap out and swap in like they would be for GU10 or are there transformer considerations?

Thanks

https://www.viribright.com/mr16-led-light-bulbs/

Yes, GU 5.3 is 12v.

My house has GU5.3 throughout, and I've swapped all the ones that get used more than once-in-a-blue-moon for LEDs. Generally no problem, though if you have a dodgy transformer somewhere, a LED may be less forgiving than its halogen predecessor.

The exception to that is dimmers. Put LEDs on a dimmer made for halogens and there's a high risk they'll constantly flicker.

FWIW, I tried this in stages. For the hallway, 2.6W LEDs give about the same light as 50w halogens. For the kitchen, 7W LEDs light it much brighter than the halogens ever did, though brighter still wouldn't hurt. Others are intermediate: the first one I tried in the hallway was way too bright there at 3.8W, but a row of five of those work nicely for the loft room (my work-from-home office).

Note that you also have a wider choice of colour: warm white through pure white to daylight white. I have pure white in much of the house.

I tried replacing a run of three 12V halogens with LED, and they would not light.

The first one was OK, even the second, but when I changed the 3rd no joy.

Eventually I found the transformer in the loft, all 3 lights were wired in parallel on one transformer rated at 50 - 250 VA (or it might have been 20-200, I can't remember).

The upshot was that with 3 LEDs fitted the total load on the transformer dropped below the minimum, so it shut down.

Paul

Clariman wrote:We have Halogen GU5.3 bulbs in the kitchen of a holiday property. I see there are LED bulbs with the same fitting. Are they simple swap out and swap in like they would be for GU10 or are there transformer considerations?

Thanks

I swapped mine out and replaced with LEDs. I've no idea where or if there is a transformer, but they all worked OK. However, they do cause the signal to reduce on a DAB radio. I believe I started a thread on here concerning that problem.

Arb.

GrahamPlatt wrote:Yes, GU 5.3 is 12v.

No, it isn't! GU5.3 only defines the pin connections, not the voltage.

Both mains GU5.3 and low voltage GU10 are available:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bonlux-Spotlig ... B07DKFRNRT
https://www.ledkia.com/uk/buy-conventio ... 2-24v.html
Yeah. I was shocked too. I would have thought 5.3 pins were too close together for 240v, especially in a damp kitchen. But of course it is a US standard and their mains is only 110v.

It's true to say GU 10 are usually 240v, and GU 5.3 are usually 12v. But not always. It is very important that the OP checks what voltage the existing bulbs are. It'll be written on the bulbs.

Replace halogen bulbs of the same voltage with LED equivalents will probably work. Though as mentioned there just might be problems with older 12v transformers.

Gryff

gryffron wrote:No, it isn't!

Mea culpa. Well done my fearsome friend.

Clariman wrote:are there transformer considerations?

Thanks

I am going to get myself into some serious trouble now

Do you want your bulbs to be Decipticons or Autobots

AiY