Wattage

CEON44

Anyone help with a lighting question. I have a couple of pendants in my kitchen with each using 3 bulbs. When I bought them a few years ago it was recommended to use maximum 40w bulbs. These were the standard bulbs but I now want to put LED energy saver bulbs in. Basically I would like brighter than the old 40w bulbs. So based on the old 40w limit how high can I go with LED. I am looking at some that are 11w but equal to 60w old money. Am I safe enough with these?

Ticked

Perfectly safe. Depends on the light fitting, but the 40 watt limit was usually more to do with heat dissipation than overload considerations.

joefizz

CEON44 wrote: »

Anyone help with a lighting question. I have a couple of pendants in my kitchen with each using 3 bulbs. When I bought them a few years ago it was recommended to use maximum 40w bulbs. These were the standard bulbs but I now want to put LED energy saver bulbs in. Basically I would like brighter than the old 40w bulbs. So based on the old 40w limit how high can I go with LED. I am looking at some that are 11w but equal to 60w old money. Am I safe enough with these?

You might also need to look at the transformer if they are 12v lights.
Most of the old halogen transformers had a minimum wattage and that could be 35, 40, 50 etc which means your 3 11 w lights wouldnt have enough load to get the transformer working properly.

I changed out all the transformers in mine they can be picked up cheaply enough and replaced by someone who knows what they are doing.
It might just be better to replace the fitting if you cant change the transformer.

I replaced my 20w halogens with 4w leds in the kitchen, couldnt see a thing. Most of that had to do with getting older and writing on packets getting smaller (or at least I tell myself that).

Mr.Generous

Go for led's with about 600+ lumins if you want it brighter than your old 40w.

CEON44

Mr.Generous wrote: »

Go for led's with about 600+ lumins if you want it brighter than your old 40w.

Yeah, I bought the ones I was looking at. They are 11w 950Lm They are really bright and perfect for the job. Thanks for all the advice