Switching from halogen to LED spotlights

[Choux]

I have three non dimmable spotlights in my bathroom ceiling. In the last week two of the halogen bulbs have gone.

I have bought equivalent non dimmable LED bulbs. Put the first one in and it worked fine. Put the second one in and it worked but flickered. I swapped the remaining halogen to the second spot and out the new LED in the third spot.

Last night the three were working fine. Today the halogen comes on and then goes off when I turn the lights on. It comes on so the bulb still works.

Is it because I am mixing bulb types?
The LED flickered in the second spot last night. If they were all LEDs would it likely still flicker?
Do I need to get an electrician to check / replace the driver? The ceiling only has the three spotlights in it so how would he get access?

Or should I just go back to halogen?

Bump. Anyone?

it would be interesting to see pics of the bulbs.

Some halogens run off a transformer, which may be unsuitable for LEDs.

To my mind, Halogens are an evolutionary dead end, and we are better off binning them. You can now get small LED lamps that run on mains voltage with no transformers and special wiring needed; they do not run dangerously hot; use far less electricity, and last longer. And you can buy them in any High Street or supermarket.

Have a look at a new set of spotlights. Preferably ones with replaceable lamps, such as SES, and NOT the ones with sealed units that cannot be relamped.

These are the new bulbs I bought and a pic of the dead halogen bulb. They are in recessed spotlights set in the ceiling so I don't know what the wiring situation is other than that they operate off the light switch and are on the mains electricity.

And this is the spot with the halogen bulb that no longer comes on now the other two bulbs have been switched to the new LED bulbs.

I think those are 12Volt lamps.

the power supply for extra-low voltage lamps is designed for a particular load, and may malfunction when the current is different, with LEDs.

it is probably hidden away in the ceiling.

I think you will need to buy different spotlights, and have them wired without a power supply unit. They're a lot simpler.

until then, I think you will have to use halogens.

The halogen bulbs have 12volt written on them.

I may buy another LED bulb and see if it works with all three bulbs being LED. It is doesn't fix the middle light I will go back to halogen. While these use more power and therefore cost more getting an electrician in to install new LED compatible wiring won't be cheap especially if they need to damage the ceiling to do the wiring.

Thanks for your advice.

We have the same. We have 12V halogen fittings and the LEDs we bought flicker very badly.

We have a transformer in the loft space and unfortunately the downstairs ones must be in the ceiling somewhere. Also we need to replace 3 sets of tracklights but at least the transformers are part of the fittings on them.

The power supply unit is often pushed up the hole in the ceiling made for one of the downlights, and may be visible when you take the light out and peer up with a torch and mirror. Turn off the power before reaching your hand in.

Rather an undesirable method, I think.

The halogen bulbs run off a 12v transformer to convert the DC to 12v, you probably need to replace the transformer with an LED driver before you can change the bulbs to LEDs. This is what we had to do with ours. The driver regulates the current and stops the flickering.