Hi,
I can't quite figure out the advantage of low-voltage recessed lighting over the line voltage variety. I *have* noticed that they are more expensive and that dimmers for them are much more expensive. But what the advantages to consider?
Thanks!
Aaron Fude
According to Aaron Fude :
I'm not altogether sure of them myself, however, they do have the advantage that if you're doing large and complex systems with common transformers, they are cheaper, and since you don't have to follow the same rules for 120V for 12V, a lot less trouble to install.
If you mean the small bulbs, MR16, the Halogens have a whiter light and can be purchased in maybe 5 different beam spread configurations and different wattages.
Voltage kills bulbs. I would expect that they would last longer. Barring that they should be cheaper to make for lasting the same length of time. They should produce less heat and can be put into smaller packages. But for a recessed light I can't see the benefit.
One advantage of low voltage incandescents and halogens is that the shorter, thicker filaments operate more efficiently. Thicker filaments can be operated at a slightly higher temperature for the same life expectancy.
Thicker filaments in gas filled incandescents, halogen or otherwise, also result in a lower temperature gradient in the immediately surrounding gas, so heat conduction from the filament to the gas per unit area of filament is less.
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
You can get essentially the exact same configurations of halogens at 120V in GU10 bases. The same fixture in MR16 (including voltage conversion hardware) costs about double that of the GU10 version. Further, the MR16 fixture will probably fail (the transformer) long before the GU10 fixture does. The only thing other than wire in a GU10 fixture (at least in the ones I just installed) is a overtemp cutoff switch.
MR16 makes more sense if you're using fixtures that don't have their own transformers, and use a centralized one.
[Two fixtures, identical other than MR16 vs. GU10 cost $35 in MR16, and $14 in GU10 a few days ago.]I've been doing some research, and the really interesting bulb coming down the pike are GU10 base bulbs that only draw about 5W of power and throw as much light as a 60W bulb would - done with white LEDs. Right now they're rather pricey tho. Like >$50.
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