Loft Insulation and Downlights

Kingdom34

Kingdom34

Kingdom34

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Joined
6 Apr 2016
Posts
486
Hi All

I have 6 downlights in my bathroom ceiling, which in turn are present in the loft....I cant be certain theyre fire safe ones.

Ive just laid new loft insulation, but left the area with the downlights present.

Have people placed caps over the downlights or laid loft insulation over the top?

Recommendations welcome.

Im just wary with a little one on the way, as well as in general of the safety hazard that may be present if i lay loft insulation over the top of them without protection.
Any products you recommend that arent going to break the bank?

Thanks in advance
Dan
 
If you have hologens in them you need to ensure they are not covered by loft insulation, so ideally caps in place, which are silly expensive.

If LEDs I wouldnt worry too much

I think you can buy the fire disc things for downlighters. Basically its a small disc of material that reacts and creates a seal when needed.

I am in the process of fixing the downlights in my house with new IP rated or fire rate depending on the room. You can get some decent dowlighters with decent LEDs for under £10 each, when you factor in the cost of running halogens and the replacement cost as they blow fairly quickly its a no brainer to get some decent new downlighters in that are Ip/fire rated
 
Thanks for the response...yes the caps are silly money, hence i wanted to see if there was another route to go.

Fire disc things? Any links.

Ok, il take a look at some GU10 LED options. Thank you
 
Sorry cant find the link now on the "things" so maybe I dreamt it

They are a red disc (well on mine) that sits between the downlighter and the ceiliing, this material reacts to create a one off seal (renders them useless going forwards)

I am actually using these, very good for the money
bathroom, https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00TK3MA6K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
rest,
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00VA91T82/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They are quite small so having to do some remedial work to the holes that previous owners have enlarged significantly by repeatedly removing the old lights. So something to be aware of if you have older lights that may have damaged boards surrounding them
 
Thank you, il take a look see what i can do. Youve been a great help. I will take a look. I think the loft insulation part is the main interest here...I just dont want to run the risk of a fire :-/

Thank you though, appreciate your input
 
Are they easy to fit? We have some aurora downlights in the bathroom but I was thinking of changing them, as they are white (and knackered with paint all over them from previous owner) the springs are loose etc, and we wanted chrome.

In terms of wiring, is it relatively straight forward? They are mains powered as GU10
 
I was under the impression that with Fire Rated LED Downlights you would never have an issue of potential fire even if the insulation is directly on top and all around. Regular LED downlights it's possible and halogen definitely possible, but not fire rated as they already come with a heat shield
 
As far as I know all downlighters are the same, fit through a hole and use springs to hold them in place.
Getting them out is awkward and thats what normally causes the damage as you need to pull the unit to get the spring to fold back to the casing. Normally once its out an inch or 2 you can do this by hand. This is when you get the plasterboard damage

Fitting is simple. If your replacing 240v with same then you should have a tail attached to the fitting that joins the lighting ring, normally with a chocblock bype connection. If this is the case, unscrew the old unit and screw in the new one, feed cables back and push new downlight into place.
If you have 12V currently you need to go back past the transformer to the ring. So there can be quite a length of cable pushed into the ceiling.

In both cases, isolate the lighting circuit first (pull fuse/trip switch etc), and if they are top floor into the loft space ensure they aren't a fire hazard due to insulation.

When I have finished all mine I am going to put some cheap plastic plant pots over the fittings in the loft just as a guard to stop anything lying directly on the fitting. Although with 3-5 watt bulbs I don't think that's ever going to cause a fire directly.
 
kaktus said:
I was under the impression that with Fire Rated LED Downlights you would never have an issue of potential fire even if the insulation is directly on top and all around. Regular LED downlights it's possible and halogen definitely possible, but not fire rated as they already come with a heat shield
Click to expand...

Yes if you look at the ones I linked they have a plastic body, where as some others you can get the back of the light bulb itself sticks out.
 
Perfect thanks for advice mate, yeah they are definitely 240v, and from what I can see is a small circular junction box which is where the existing wire for the gu10 bulb connector hangs from, so may open that junction box and check all 3 wires are in there, then hopefully as you say just a case of replace like-for-like with new ones.
 
Kingdom34 said:
Thank you, il take a look see what i can do. Youve been a great help. I will take a look. I think the loft insulation part is the main interest here...I just dont want to run the risk of a fire :-/

Thank you though, appreciate your input
Click to expand...

I would go full IP65 (or 66) in a bathroom personally.
I initially put some non IP rated in the bathroom with IP rated in the dodgy zoned areas (directly above water) but am now replacing all lights for IP rated.
When I was removing the old units which were plated chrome you could see where they were all corroding and hence were coming into contact with water indirectly. Technically not a problem, but over years who knows how bad the contacts could become.
 
Pulsedriver said:
Perfect thanks for advice mate, yeah they are definitely 240v, and from what I can see is a small circular junction box which is where the existing wire for the gu10 bulb connector hangs from, so may open that junction box and check all 3 wires are in there, then hopefully as you say just a case of replace like-for-like with new ones.
Click to expand...

No probs.
The lights I linked above have the connection to the right main attached, its the bit that sticks out at the top at a right angle. Inside that cover is a choc connector. So I would completely remove the existing round junction box and use the new one on the lights.
 
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