Dangerous Heat Caused by Halogen Downlights
Halogen August 4th, 2006Hi Daniel,
I have halogen downlights downstairs in my 2 storey home. I can feel “hotspots” in my timber floor upstairs directly above the halogen down light and am concerned about a fire hazard.
It would be hard to put in one of your heat guards without cutting large holes in my ceiling. There is about 15 cm between the ceiling and the floor above.
Would I be better off with a low voltage aluminium reflector bulb.
What can you recommend?
Great site BTW.
Cheers.
Neil
August 4th, 2006 at 7:11 am
Hi Neil,
It sounds like you need a fireman not a lighting expert! There have been homes that have burnt down in Australia due to the exact same circumstances that you describe. Please refrain from using these lights until this addressed, particularly if you can feel the heat through timber floorboards above the fittings!
You are quite right! If possible without a doubt the best solution would be our halogen Isolite downlight covers which keep the heat in and stop the heat entering the roof space and causing a fire. But unless you are a gynaecologist it would be really difficult to fit from below!
The second option is the Osram Decostar 51 ALU. These have an aluminium coated reflector without a shield which reduces the heat in the light fitting by about 80% compared to normal halogen reflectors with a shield. Where the dichroic reflector is designed to allow the heat back into the light fitting, the aluminium coating reflects the heat down. These lamps are available in 20 watt, 35 watt and 50 watt and have a average rated life of 3000 hours.
Another option may be to consider LED technology. This may or may not be suitable as it really depends what you are using your current halogen lamps for. LEDs still produce heat, but nothing like a halogen down light but there is considerable light output loss. If you are using them as “effect†lights and don’t need to read under them then they may be an option.
There could be another option which may be worth considering. Osram have new technology called IRC (Infra Red Coating). Lamps with this special coating actually produce more light than conventional lamp. What this means is that you can use lower wattage lamps (also lower heat) to produce the same amount of light. In my home I have changed all my lamps to 20 watt IRC halogens which produce as much as light as the 50 watt lamps I removed.
Anyway there are a few ideas for you.
Let me know if there is anything else you are unsure of
Kind regards
Daniel Purser
Lighting Expert
Lighting Pro Australia
daniel@lightingpro.com.au