I have a couple of Fibaro dimmer 2 and 4 new Shelly Dimmer.
On my low voltage G4 Halogen Lamps there is a driver transforming the voltage.
The problem is that the driver is 10 years old and and now a days LED is more commonly used (and also what I want to use).
The driver can’t handle the low load from leds and starts to flicker and make buzzing noices.
So either I have to replace it with a low load compatiable one or maybe I could just simply remove it with Fibaro or Shelly Dimmer handling the voltage load!?
You can fit a capacitive load on the transformer output in parallel with the LEDs but it’s a bit of a cludge.
I removed my low voltage transformers and replaced the globes and fittings with 240V LED versions. You can not use the dimmers and no transformer without doing this.
Also be aware that putting a capacitor to balance the power factor will also increase you used power.
I did a few calcs on power usage and they are based on 3 hours use per day.
A traditional 60W tungsten bulb costs about £10.50 a year to run (bulb cost, life, power etc.)
For the replacement LED with a dimmer (the dimmer uses power too and 24/day) costs about £1.60
You can get this even lower with cheap LED bulbs but I experienced flickering, colour temperature issues and I didn’t like the look.
For a bulb costing even as much as £8 (I now use Ikea ledare’s wherever possible) payback for the bulb is less than a year. A no brainer.
@Mutt thanks for the input. You are both right, I will not take this approach.
Maybe it would be possible to change the fittings to 230V GU10 instead of G4, I really like this approach with less components involved causing less dependencies.
I’m only hesitating because of the placing of the fittings are “in” the windows similar to what you can see in bellow picture. Maybe the flush mounts are to small for GU10 and I can’t find any G4 230V fittings.
Thanks - Guess I gonna need that
Actually I will just stick with what I have for now and try to change that transformer in the future which I after 10 years just recently found in another nearby flush mount.
