The New Downlight Wiring Rules and What They mean to You

The new Australian/New Zealand Wiring Rules AS/NZS 3000 stipulate a minimum clearance for halogen recessed downlights of 200mm between the downlight and structural members, thermal insulation and any other substance, unless the luminaire has a suitable fire resistant enclosure.

The electronic low voltage (ELV) transformer must be fixed in a well ventilated location, not directly above the downlight and free from direct contact with any insulating material. The minimum distance of the secondary wires is 250mm.

So this really gives you 3 options when considering your downlights

1> Fit after-market halogen down light guards These are quite expensive and hard to fit in low access ceilings
2> Buy fire rated halogen downlight hood kits which have the covers built in
3> Consider fittings that don’t use halogens and there run cooler and reduce the risk of fire

Always consult the safety warnings and installation instructions when fitting all fittings including the fire rated downlights as there are still guidelines for their safe installation.

Eg on the fire rated down light hood kits a minimum distance of 25mm must still be kept (see image below). This is due to the aluminium heat hood and fire guard cylinder is acting as a heat sink and providing fire resistance.

The isolite halogen downlight fire guards can be fitted directly adjacent to the insulation without worry

Hi,

I am looking to reduce the heat generated in my current Down Light Fittings and cant decide between the Osram Infra Red Coated (IRC) Lamp type such as the Decostar 51 Energy Saver or the Osram Decostar 51 ALU.

I am leaning towards the Osram Decostar 51 ALU as I understand that it releases almost no heat to the rear of the lamp assembly.

Can you tell me which way I should go, also, do you sell these globes as I want around 25 of them.

many thanks

Jim

Good morning,

I have a GE 8 w cool white 5000AV life hours Fluorescent tube light Type is T5 , Diameter is 16mm , Length 300mm , Watt 8w.
I have found this light to be very dull and hard to read by, Is there a much more brighter fluoro that is the same sizes and 8 watts that I can purchase.
Can you supply code and description of this item . Also an you explain what is the 5000K mean on the packaging of this type of light.?
Is a higher number more brighter?

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your reply.

Have a nice day,

Cheers, Peter & Anne. ( Atherton, Qld, 4883, Australia.)

We have a outside coach light running a 60w low voltage light running of a HPM transformer, this has been operating for a number of years and we decided to upgrade the globe to a new compact fluro 12v 20watt globe.

When we replaced it it lit up well and we went inside. After we went out to look at this globe and it was off, I looked inside the lamp housing and a bad smell and hot base on the fluro globe.

We replaced it with the original globe and this worked ok ,so could you tell me what could be the problem.

The fluro globe has this on the box; HLDCSCT4/58-20W 12V 3000K B22. The transformer has this info; HPM CATRGL11 230-240 V 50Hz AC 150 Va max

Thank you for your help

Brian.

Everyone asks me for advice on what type of light fittings to install.

Sometimes they have already bought the lights, sometimes they have drilled the holes in the ceiling already, nearly everyone has a friend who is an electrician who “knows all about lights” but very rarely does anyone ever come to me and ask “what would you do if you were starting new?”.

In fact there have been only 2 people that didn’t have any commitment or prejudice to one style or another and both took my advice and are over the moon with the results. The sad thing is that I make less money putting customers into the right light fitting than I do putting them into the wrong one (what is wrong with me??)

Here is a picture of my dream light (click on it and it gets bigger)

Now a lot of people are scratching their heads wondering why this is so exciting. There are so many reasons to get excited about I dont know where to start.

They look good, they look modern and they arent big and bulky. They take a stock standard cheap CFL ES globe you can buy at Woolworths or Coles. They arent a fancy bulb that you need to get a bank loan to buy! You can put a 15 watt globe in there that will be the equivalent of a 75 watt globe so you get heaps of light! If you put a warm coloured compact fluro globe in there you wont even know that it is a fluorescent globe at all. They are cheap so the wife will love them! The main reason I love them is that these are the first design where someone has actually looked at the shape of a compact fluoro globe and wants to get the most light for the customer out of the fitting. You see the globe is mounted sideways. This means that you get the most light as possible where you need it. Other fittings have the globe in a upright position. This means all the light is going sideways!

They are available in white and satin chrome so will suit most interior designs. There is one negative though. The dimmable compact fluorescent globes currently available wont fit in them. This means you cant dim them. But hey, there are so many advantages these far outweigh the disadvantages (who’s to say dimmable globes won’t get smaller in size too and fit in later down the track)

Contact me if you want me to quote you on some

Good luck with your lighting in your home

Kind regards

Daniel

UPDATE: I have added these energy saving fittings to the site in single quantities. If you need 14 or more I might be able to squeeze the price little - Contact me

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?