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I have 12 volt spotlight type lighting in my house. They run from a drop down transformer. Each bulb is 12v 50Watts. in one room alone i have 10 spot lights, that adds up to 500watts of lighting! I think thats a lot of power?? Does it make a difference to the electricity that is being used up (and paid for) that they are 12v (and not the usual 240v mains) bulbs, or is it just the same because its down to the wattage?

It is exactly the same, because the 240 volt ones are also 50 watts.

So there will be no saving!

Personally I do not like spotlights/ halogen lights for that very reason.


500w to light one room is madness. I have flourescent strip lights in many rooms, I know they look rubbish but they give a good light and are energy efficient.

I know what your saying, its a terrible waste of electricity and i don't know what to do. Is there an energy saving spotlight? If there is i'd love to know. Only other option is to remove them all, fill in the holes and have a normal light?

http://www.greenshop.co.uk/acatalog/ind ... atalogBody


scroll down to Energy Saving LED GU10 Spot Light


I am not sure if these are the same as you have now but these only use 2.2 Watts!

They also do not give as good a light but with 10 of them in one room, they might be ok?

I guess you could try one or two?

They are expensive but will last much longer than normal lamps

That's great thanks. They are expencive but will be worth it in the long run i think. Thanks for that.

Energy saving lamps that fit into normal BC sockets used to be really crappy. Some still are, with poor colour, look ugly and take a couple of minutes to warm up to full brightness.

The latest lamps, with the spirals inside a bulb are much better, I have fittings with 16 candle lamps in my dining room. If they were the 25W filiament type that would add up to 400 W, but with 5W energy saving lamps the total is only 80W. I don't need dimmers because I switch groups so I can have a lower light level by switching on fewer lamps.

Another problem with filiament lamps is they create a dust spot on the ceiling above them. After a year or so you have a saucer sized mark.

Its good they now do more types of energy saving bulbs, as I have no "normal" light fittings in my house!

I ordered two of the ES type for my kitchen lights.

I'm suprised they don't supply bulbs at 5% VAT.

good link uhm

I am sick of replacing 240V halogen GU10s in the kictchen as they blow too easily so I can replace them with leds bulbs

Just to point out that in theory 12v halogen lighting are more efficient than 230v. Due to the fact that 12v halogen bulbs produce more lumens per watt.

But if swapping like for like, there wouldn't be any energy saving, you would just have more light with the 12v lighting.

There are fluorescent recess lights Page 11 of this link http://www.scolmore.com/resource/pdf/Li ... 3-1_P1.pdf

As they are only 7 watt! you will need stacks of them to light an aquivilat area as the halogens. Still save stacks of energy though