Replacing halogen with LED bulbs

[petem]

I'm in the process of organizing the replacement of my old halogen G4's with LED and think I've found the perfect product for the job, more about that at a later date.

Anyhow, there was a post on Hurricane's SCM forum that raises what I think is a very good point. The original G4 halogen bulbs that I have were 10w and the new LED equivalents are around 1.5w. Converting that to amps..

Halogen G4 10 watts @ 12v is 0.8amps
LED G4 1.5 watts @ 12v is 0.125amps

Assuming 10 of each gives 8 amps and 1.25 amps respectively.

What's interesting (potentially dangerous) is that the original breakers (20 amps I suspect) would have been rated for halogens and their higher watts and therefore are no longer really suitable for an all LED set-up.

Is this an issue? Should we be fitting new breakers?

 

[Momac]

Should we be fitting new breakers?

Hopefully not because havent !
But my led's are individually fused in the bulb circuit.

 

[Croftie]

First can you switch on just one lamp or do you have to have all on. If only one then 1 x halogen is still less than 1amp
Secondly, remember the fuse rating is to protect the cable so as long as the cable is rated at over the fuse rating you should be OK, so if there is a short the fuse blows before the cable over heats.

 

[Bigplumbs]

The power usage and hence energy is so low with LED'S I would not be concerned about the breakers

 

[Richard10002]

Secondly, remember the fuse rating is to protect the cable so as long as the cable is rated at over the fuse rating you should be OK, so if there is a short the fuse blows before the cable over heats.

What he said... the fuse/breaker is to protect the cable. If the cable isnt changing, the breaker will be fine.

 

[Assassin]

If you get a defective LED its current draw will be so low that it wouldn't trip the lowest rated breaker, it will just burn itself out.