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I have a suspended ceiling in my bathroom with 6 halogen (MR160 12V 35W) spotlights, each light has its own transformer, which I believe is to covert the voltage from 240v to 12v.

Some of the fitting do not work entirely (I have checked by moving the bulbs to another fitting), and in addition the new LED bulbs (12v 5w) I have bought either do not work or intermittently flash.

My questions are... Is it normal to have one transformer per bulb?

My assumption is that the LED bulbs flash because the transformer is not the right one, is this correct and which one should I get?

I also assume the other fitting do not light, either due to faulty wiring or more likey the transformer has blown?

Do the transformers have to be dimmable, considering we don't have a dimmer switch.

The label on one of the transformers enter image description here

View of the ceiling enter image description here

2 Answers 2

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My questions are... Is it normal to have one transformer per bulb?

Yes, though not always. Track fittings in particular use many bulbs (usually 12V MR16) off a single transformer/driver.

My assumption is that the LED bulbs flash because the transformer is not the right one, is this correct and which one should I get?

I also assume the other fitting do not light, either due to faulty wiring or more likey the transformer has blown?

The transformer may have a minimum load, below which it won't switch on or will oscillate between on and off. Have you tried putting the old halogens back in? If they work, the transformer is OK.

Do the transformers have to be dimmable, considering we don't have a dimmer switch.

Nope.

If you want LED bulbs (and don't mind about dimmability), it may be easiest to replace the MR16 downlights with mains-voltage GU10 ones, and use GU10 bulbs. No transformer/driver required.

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I suspect the load of the bulb is not higher than the minimum load of the transformer. The reason the bulb flashes when initially switched on could be that, the initial power draw is higher then. I wonder whether putting 2 LEDs on 1 transformer would fix it.

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