Light fittings or electrics

[Needanewadventure2021]

Hi

Looking for some help.

I have two ceiling lights that have a transformer inside. I know the transformer going is a common problem as I replaced them around 4 years ago with the same fitting as they died back then too.

Fast forward to now, both lights have gone again, but weirdly one day after the other. It's not ideal as they are in two heavily used room in the house (main bedroom and living room). Whilst I am in the process of getting new fittings to be put up, I can't lie that it is playing on my mind they went so close to each other.

Could is simply be coincidence and their lifespan or should I be worried about my electrics?

There are no other issues with lights, sockets, electrics in the house, or at least nothing that has been brought to my attention. The fuse box is not tripping either.

Many thanks

What type of light fittings are they? Any chance of a pic?

Sure here

I've also just seen, installed exactly 5 years ago

Id recommend getting rid of them and putting in a 230V fitting. Or just accept you need to replace the transformer every couple of years.

The lights are definitely going so I'm on top of that. So would you say it is likely the fitting and not the electrics (coincidence that both went a day after the other)

I went through understanding this.

Basically 2 types of LED lights, ones that need a transformer and ones that don't (work off the mains 240V). The ones that don't effectively have the transformer in the light itself.

The ones that need transformers are low voltage and normally older type, although they also tend to be fitted in the water tight (IP65) sockets above showers and baths for obvious reasons.

The transformers aren't great. For one some transformers only work well with a certain minimum load, so if you don't load them with enough lights then it can cause various issues. If you have several lights working off one transformer then if one fails it could cause a voltage spike that makes it through to the other lights running off the transformer. So it is entirely possible that one light failing caused another marginal light to fail, or upset the loading on the transformer such that the ouptut voltage increased temporarily and the increased stress caused another light to fail.

I guess it is a question of what the best thing to do is, either continue to run the lights off the old transformer, accepting the fact that stuff like this happens (and is probably more likely to happen with separate lights/transformers) or change your socket and all the lights for 240V. If you can do this yourself it is not that pricey, but if you have to get an electrician in to do the job you may think it more worthwhile just to accept that the bulbs are likely to fail more often. You can buy a hell of a lot of bulbs for price of an electrician to refit the socket.

Finally its worth noting that even if you buy the ones with transformers in the lights, they still can have a relatively high failure rate as checking amazon reviews will testify. They are probably a lot less likely to take out other lights when they fail though.

Another strategy might be to save up a load of small electrical jobs and get them all done at once.

If they were bought at the same time (so likely from the same batch), installed at the same time and used about as much as each other, then it's not all that surprising that they failed so close to each other.

@MaybeSmaller thanks for this. Both were purchased together and put up together and would have been similarly used the same.

I've decided to replace all the ceiling lights in my house. There aren't many but cost of fitting them is better when having multiple fitted. The others are from when I moved in in 2011 so an update is due anyway