Loft insulation with downlighters

beyond the blue

beyond the blue

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Neil
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I live in a bungalow and I only have 100mm of the old type fibre glass roll insulation (the type that gives you a cough when you disturb it). I want to put another 100mm on top of the old stuff but I have GU10 50w downlighters (35 in total)
so the old insulation has been removed for about 300mm around each light. What can I put over the lights that will handle the heat that comes from them so I can insulate up close to them? I have started to replace them with LED's room by room but it's a costly job.
 
Buy some purpose made heat guards, should be available from a decent electrical supplier.
 
Can somebody say if these covers are needed if the lights are LEDs as they don't seem to give off any heat ?

C
 
I use these and they give off a very bright light highly recommended.
 
Ceejay said:
Can somebody say if these covers are needed if the lights are LEDs as they don't seem to give off any heat ?

C
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They do not get really hot, very warm yes but not hot you can handle them even when they have been on for hours.
 
The covers are recommended not because of the heat generated by the lamp but to reduce the chance of fire transmission through the lamp hole, the cover thus acting as a barrier and hopefully containing the fire in the room for longer.

I had a couple of dozen downlighters installed in the downstairs of my house and the electrician said they were "recommended" but not mandatory - I chose not to have them due to expense. My feeling would be that if you were to fit the covers and then pile the insulation over the top, you may as well not use them. With your 50w 12v lamps you will have to give them ventlation otherwise they will overheat and fail.
 
A cheap but not perfect solution is buy a load of cheap terracotta pots from a garden centre. You can get them for about £1.20 each and they are heat resistant and will stop the insulation touching the bulbs.
 
Cartus said:
My feeling would be that if you were to fit the covers and then pile the insulation over the top, you may as well not use them. With your 50w 12v lamps you will have to give them ventlation otherwise they will overheat and fail.
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You're supposed to use aluminium backed lamps, they are designed to reflect heat downwards in enclosed fire rated or retro fitted fire hood downlighters.
Umm, its tough to balance cost with fire risk, personally I'd have to do something about those though, one way or the other.
 
Ceejay said:
Can somebody say if these covers are needed if the lights are LEDs as they don't seem to give off any heat ?

C
Click to expand...
Typically LED lamps do get hot; heat dissipation is one of the main issues with designing them. A lot will have cooling fins on, so although they may be cool underneath, they're giving off heat elsewhere.
 
TopBanana said:
Typically LED lamps do get hot; heat dissipation is one of the main issues with designing them. A lot will have cooling fins on, so although they may be cool underneath, they're giving off heat elsewhere.
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Do they though- enough to be a fire risk? Most stuff seems to say not as if they did get that hot wouldn't their wattage be much higher. It seems they get warm rather than hot
http://gelblighting.com/advantage-of-led-lighting-products/
 
I have just took some temperature readings of my standard 50w and equivalent Led downlighters after being on for 30 minutes. Going off these readings I've decided to insulate directly over the Led's but not the standard ones.

Standard downlighter from the room 225.8 C



Standard downlighter fro the loft 174.7 C



Led from the room 32.9 C



Led from loft 35 C

 
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