Modern bulbs - compatibility with old dimmer switches...

silvercar

Anyone know about MR16 bulbs.

Q1, can I replace with LED MR16 as a direct swap or do I need to change something else?

Q2, Some of my lights connect to a 3 switch dimmer style. I say style because 1 of them links to an outside sensor light that is off or on ie it doesn't dim. The other 2 operate a set of spotlights MR16 with dimmers. Can I just change the MR16s for dimmers or not? Someone suggested only changing a few of the bulbs to keep the wattage high enough to operate the dimmer. Will that work?

grateful for any help.

jennifernil

That may well work. We have some light tracks with dimmers, we changed the 4 x 40w spotbulbs for 4w GU10 LEDs and one of the dimmers buzzed a little, but did still dim.

We put back one 40w spotbulb and it stopped buzzing.

We have changed out the bulbs on about 10 similar tracks with dimmers, and only one dimmer was affected. These are 27 year old MK dimmers.

almillar

Q1 - Yes you can, but MR16 are becoming less popular for LED. MR16 needs a separate transformer. You've obviously already got one/several. It/they might not be compatible with new LEDs - they may not run at all, they may flicker, they may be fine.

Q2 - again, you'd be wanting LEDs that can dim, AND you may need to change your dimmer, for similar reasons as above.

This might be a good time to change your fittings over to GU10 - they run on AC, the transformer is inside them, so you don't need to worry about compatibility, and you'll also have a far better choice of lights to go with it, now and in the future.

silvercar

almillar wrote: »

Q1 - Yes you can, but MR16 are becoming less popular for LED. MR16 needs a separate transformer. You've obviously already got one/several. It/they might not be compatible with new LEDs - they may not run at all, they may flicker, they may be fine.

Q2 - again, you'd be wanting LEDs that can dim, AND you may need to change your dimmer, for similar reasons as above.

This might be a good time to change your fittings over to GU10 - they run on AC, the transformer is inside them, so you don't need to worry about compatibility, and you'll also have a far better choice of lights to go with it, now and in the future.

Thank you. We have just changed a set of 13 MR16 over to GU10 LEDs and are very pleased with the result. Was wondering if I could get away without the electrician costs this time.

almillar

Was wondering if I could get away without the electrician costs this time.

You MIGHT. You'll not know until you've bought the bulbs, by which time it's too late. If you had a good experience with the last electrician, get him back to do it all.