Low Voltage vs Mains Voltage.

There are 2 issues - the most important is that we cannot recommend using low voltage LED lamps with electronic transformers used with halogen lighting - they are not designed to give the appropriate current for high power LED's and the long term life of the lamp will be compromised - this is why our MR16 LED lamps are supplied with drivers. In our opinion a low voltage LED system with the correct driver will be significantly more reliable that the mains voltage GU10 based systems where the driver is much smaller and is a necessarily compromised design.

The second issue the amount of light - low voltage halogen lamps are MUCH more efficient than mains halogen which means that whereas a 4.5w led might replace a 35w mains halogen, it will only replace a 25w low voltage lamp. We've seen companies claiming that 12v lamps with a 150 lumen output can replace a 50w halogen! Nonsense - not even close!

Read the full article in our Advice Forum - click here.