advice re insulation & led lights

[nickj633]

I hope someone can offer advice.

We have recently had a single story extension with a pitched roof, with skylights & halogen downlights.

The builder (very good bloke) told me that he was restricted in the amount of insulation he was able to place near each light, due to airflow & fire regs (fully appreciate this).

However recently with the cold weather we have noticed that we may be letting excessive amounts of heat through the roof in the areas that have no insulation, makng the room quite cold.

Can we remove these bulbs and replace with LED, then somehow fill the gaps in the roof with insualtion? i know it will be difficuls without cutting into the roof from either above or below, but i hate to think of the amount of heat we are losing......

Any help with this would be great.

Nick

 

[riveralt]

I am very surprised that you got the spotlights through building control because you and in part your builder must have broken numerous building regulations in the process.
Your problem is that, despite the perception, LED's do give of heat - hence their rather large heatsinks which I would suggest you don't touch.

Most LED downlights require a min of 100mm free of insulation around the hole - which is probably about half the standard downlight figure but still a big gap.

You could use fire rated downlights - but even these require 150mm either side free of insulation.
I'm afraid that the only option, I can see - though others may disagree, is to replace the holes with insulation and plaster and fit a normal ceiling mounted light.

 

[nickj633]

Thanks for the reply.

As far as breaching building regs, that will be in the hands of the builder, and the chap from the council who signed it off and issued the certificate; being the customer i can only go on what i am told at the time by both parties.

It looks as though your suggestion of bringing the lights out of the ceiling, and either 'podding' them, or just having them externally mounted will be the answer.

Nick

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Your problem is that, despite the perception, LED's do give of heat - hence their rather large heatsinks which I would suggest you don't touch.

nickj - riveralt is spot on.

LEDs do not produce much heat, but they are incredibly intolerant of the little that they do, and it must be got rid of or they will fail.