Thanks! I've seen the light now! Got mine out. As you say, it's easier than it sounds. I probably made too much of a palaver when I did some upper floor ones a couple of years ago, accessing them from the loft.
However, care to glance at my *latest* post? About the white sleeves?
MM
At a guess, the sleeves are to protect the cable against the high temperatures usually found in such light fittings. They probably find it cheaper than fully wiring in suitable cable.
Chris
No, you have to remove the sleeves for the wires to make connection
-- unless they're designed so that the fixing screws in the connector block pierce the sleeves. Besides, the connector block is then covered with a black plastic cover shield.
MM
Then realise it doesn't hold anymore because you mangled the plasterboard too much during removal.
MBQ
If the plasterboard is in poor condition from previous graunching, reaching through the hole and gently encouraging the springs into the right position can help.
Once I'd sussed out how to do it, I replaced two transformers in about
15 minutes. These ruddy downlighters are an expensive way to light a home. I grew up with pendant lights and 60W bulbs, which I'd still much rather have than 29 downlighters with their 29 transformers, each of which costs £6 to replace. If this represents progress, please take me back to the 1950s!MM
How odd.
It shows you the fittings and how the springs are. You just pull them down. They're a shit design, cheap and nasty, and not kind to plasterboard if you have to do it more than once.
Not the design used in my house, however.
MM
Your point? I got the upper floor ones out by releasing the spring clips *from the loft side* of the plasterboard. I cannot do that with the downstairs, e.g. kitchen, lights.
MM
I sometimes keep that in my trousers.
the point would appear to be that you have already asked these exact same questions in the thread of 2011 ??
deja vue? of fuckwittering?
Jim K
Its not progress, its utterly ridiculous but was fashionable. Have you adde= d up the amount of power used when all the lights are on ? Was the house built in the late 80s or 90s ? Simon.
That was when I was replacing the ones *upstairs*! (Dunno how many more times I need to point this out.)
MM
the amount of power used when all the lights are on ?
2004MM
so you haven't actually been arsed to read thru that 2011 thread?
How many times do we have to point this out? & I quote you from april
2011:-YOU 2011:-
DENISE 2011:- They usually fit through the holes the down lighters are in, you don't say what yours are.
go read the rest of the (similarly lengthy) 2011 thread yourself?
Jim K
I am still fitting downlighters by the bucket load. Customers cannot get enough of them. Andrew Gabriel did point out that if all the downlighters I have fitted were switched on at the same time then that would be half a megawatt of power. I generally only fit LEDs now.
And did any of those posts say how to get them out? As I said, with the upper floor ones I didn't need to get them out, since I replaced the transformers with the fittings in situ. I did remove one in order to photograph it, however. I lifted the spring clips and the fitting fell out. Now, how was I supposed to lift the clips in the case of the downstairs ones without access to the space between the floors?
MM
I checked the price of a LED bulb in Wilkinson a few weeks ago and it was 13 quid! My halogens are 50p each from Boyes and most have lasted nine years now. I don't like the floodlight effect, though, which is why I would have preferred the "old-fashoned" pendant light in the centre of the room.
Curiously, for some unknown reason, the builder *did* put just such a pendant light in each of the three bedrooms *and* in the living room! God knows what passes for logic among builders...
...so he puts 2 downlighters in the downstairs loo, a very small room. Why the effing f... does anyone need downlighters in a downstairs loo, for God's sake! Even the utility room has 4 of the things. This is where the washing machine is, with a small work surface and a basic stainless steel sink and lovely "old-fashioned" pillar taps (so he got one thing right!).
MM
try post 3 in the 2011 thread - you know, *your* thread that *you* started about *your* exact same downlighter "problem panic"
are you retarded or just on heavy meds?
Jim K
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