Question for Electricians please.! ...replacing some Down Lights

Soldato
Joined
11 Jun 2004
Posts
4,201
Location
Middlesex, London
Hello Electricians!

Need some help / guidance please.

I am trying to replace some old Halogen MR16 Downlights with some newer Aurora Enlite LED lights (GU10)

...when I pulled down the existing MR16 lights - I can see they are connected via a little transformer, which then goes into a junction box.

So the question I have is what wire / cable should I use from the junction box to the new Lights? Also they have not connected any earth cable from the Junction box to the transformer, it's just two little wires.

So should I connect an earth from the junction box to the new lights?

....would 2/3 core 0.75mm2 flex be adequate? or should it be 1.0mm2?

Thanks
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Jan 2018
Posts
14,657
Location
Hampshire
Enlites are loop in loop out mains voltage lights, no transformer. So you take the cable from the junction box, 1mm2 will be fine and then loop to the next downlight and so on, so all the downlights are daisy chained. The enlites have terminals for earth and they should be used. If its just a single downlight you can use only 3 terminals on the enlite, no loop out.
 
Associate
Joined
8 Mar 2006
Posts
1,402
Location
York
MR16 are 12 volt lights, so bin them and the transformer as you don't need them anymore, because they were only 12 volt they didn't need an earth either. Your new downlights won't need an earth if they are double insulated fittings (they will have a symbol of a square within a square on them). I'm not an electrician, but I did the same job as you a few years ago!

Dave
 
Associate
Joined
8 Mar 2006
Posts
1,402
Location
York
I had 10 MR16's in my kitchen and 4 in my bathroom fed by 2 core cable (with no earth). The earth was there at the switch, it just wasn't ran as far as the lights. As there was no earth feeding the old transformers, I specifically choses some class 2 integrated downlighters. Originally I had planned to used some cheapo GU10 metal fittings but the lack of easily accessible earth put a stop to that. I'm glad it did as the integrated ones are way better.

Dave
 
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