As I am sure you can appreciate being in the lighting industry I have
access to all sorts of fittings and lamp technologies. Some are great
and some not so great. The GU10 halogen I am afraid definitely gets
rated in the latter category

There are a few reasons why the GU10 halogen is a dud and here they are
in no particular order.

The first reason is cost. GU10 halogens are much more expensive than 12
Volt halogens. The reason for this is simple. There are a lot more low
voltage halogens manufactured in the world and hence the cost is lower.

The next reason they are a dud is their very poor light output. A 240
Volt 50 watt GU10 halogen puts out 800 candelas of light. The equivalent
12 volt low voltage halogen puts out 1450 candelas. As you can see the
light outputs between the two cannot be compared – the 12 volt wins
hands down!

Another good reason not to go down the 240V halogen path is the lack of
range of globes available. There are only 2 different types of 240 volt
halogen available which are 35 watt and 50 watt. You don’t have a choice

in beam widths, wattage or lamp life. In 12 volt halogens you have a far
greater choice in lamp quality and type and can even buy a globe that
will last 10,000 hours. This is not possible with 240 volt halogens.

Lamp life is one of the most important factors to consider when choosing
between halogen lighting systems. The 240 volt halogen has a very short
life. This is due to a couple of reasons. Firstly there are no long life
versions of the 240V commercially available. The other reason is the
susceptibility of the 240V version to be affected by over voltage. As
the voltage changes on the mains power system the filament in the lamps
cops the whole voltage change where the filament in a low voltage
halogen lamps only gets a percentage of the change as the voltage change
has been reduced proportionally in the transformer.

Do you want to know the worst thing about the 240 volt halogens? Once
you have installed them and you find out about all this good stuff there
is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Sure there are compact
fluorescent GU10 varieties available but they are well short of 240V
halogen light out let alone the 12 volt halogen light outputs

9 watt 2700K Compact Fluorescent Megaman GU10 – 14.4 Lux
35 watt Halogen GU10 – 78 lux
50 watt Halogen GU10 – 104 lux

Do you have a mate that said you should look at GU10 in LED? Don’t even
bother contemplating it. Sure I sell them but unless you are looking for
mood lighting and are going to use alternative lighting as your main
source then don’t go there. They are very efficient in that they don’t

use much power but you would need so many of them to get sufficient
light for every day living that the efficiency just goes out the door.

I am not saying that 12 volt halogens are the preferred lighting option
for your home either but if you like the small recessed halogen
downlight look it is certainly the way to go. I moved into a house and
the previous owner had installed downlights. After initially playing
with LED (to find it was a waste of time) I installed electronic
transformers on all the downlights (as they have less electrical loss
than the old style wire wound ones) and use 20 watt IRC halogens. They
produce as much light as the 50 watt lamps but they give me a 60% energy
saving. The other good thing is that they last 5000 hours (which is
unheard of with a 240 Volt halogen GU10).

If you want to know what I would install if I had the opportunity to
start again – that is a different story!

Hope this helps

Best regards

Daniel Purser
Lighting Specialist
http://www.lightingpro.com.au
daniel@lightingpro.com.au

I purchased a couple of boxes of cfs to do the house, however when it rained and the globes were on the floor in the garage they all got wet. Can I let them dry out or? Also will the new CFs take longer and more detrimental to the enviroment when put in the rubbish.

I have a Lava Lamp in which I need to replace the light globe. The instructions recommend R39 25watt which have been uanble to source. I can source a R39 30watt .. would the increased wattage be a danger to place in the lamp when instructions indicate use 25watt globe only?

I have an old home in rural NSW and I am seeking to put in new lights, globes and dimmers Can you pleasse assist me with architrave light dimmers and also power saving globes?

We are looking at fitting new lights in our theatrette at our schools and the bosses want to replace all the existing with fluorescents with a new style of lighting. What would you recommend?

Dear Daniel,

Downlights with or without transformers. Which one is safer? Which one is less expensive to run?

Would appreciate your thoughts

Kind regards

Arun

Many people write to me complaining how they bought a bulb from Woolworths or Coles and they fitted it up and that the new globe failed in a very short space of time!

Well there could be a few reasons why this has occurred.

The first could be the quality of the globe. light bulbs are no longer manufactured in Australia and are therefore all imported into the country. You will see globes from all over the world - Indonesia, China, Germany, Spain, USA or Italy. As with many things in life you get what you pay for. Unless you get enjoyment from climbing ladders, always look at where the product is manufactured. The filaments in quality globes will outlast the cheap ones most of the time.

The second reason could be the rated voltage of the globe. Sometimes you will see a long life version of a light globe right next to the cheaper one. Next time have a look at the voltage on the side of the long life version and you will notice that it is higher than the cheaper alternative. This is why the lamp lasts longer as it is continually being operated under voltage. You can achieve the same result by using a dimmer switch.

Another reason could be that the electricity company may not be providing you with a constant voltage. In many areas in Australia, especially during peak times there will be times when the mains voltage exceeds the standards. We know that under voltage increases lamp life, the opposite occurs when the lamps operate on higher voltages.

And sometimes lamps just fail. You must consider that millions of light bulbs are imported into Australia every year and occasionally a rogue globe sneaks through quality assurance and just blows.

Hopefully next time you are left in darkness at the most inconvenient of times, you will understand a bit of the science of why the light globes might of failed.

Long life incandescent globes are available in all sorts of shapes and sizes online from Lighting Pro Australia.