Spotlights not working

[kevg487]

Help!

As of 2 days ago the spotlights in my bathroom stopped working. They are off a double lightswitch which works for other light it feeds. Went up loft to check cabling of lights and found there's a "massive (brand) ac adaptor which looks like it feeds the lights. Anyone heard of these and know if they are fed from mains plug. There's a cable but it runs under mdf flooring so can't trace it easily.

 

[kevg487]

 

[terryplumb]

It reduces mains voltage 230/240 volts down to 12 volts. And it's probably failed ,testing the voltage it receives ( or rather isn't receiving) would confirm .
Those connections should be made in a junction box by the way,not the terminal strip as they are now.

 

[Taylortwocities]

@kevg487 How many downlights are there?
Lots of alternate suppliers, so make sure the output is 60VA, or more.

But note that you may need to get up to date with all of the lights. The existing are, I guess, halogen?
These are no longer available, so you may need to think about changing your lights for low energy LED ones.

 

[kevg487]

There's 3 downlights but I currently can't get access to the holes as they are buried under flooring / insulation. Can I just swap the lights to LEDs and get rid of that transformer ( if that's what it called) ?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Take a step back. The transformer is 60watts, so unless your lights are 20 watts each then there may be two other transformers hidden somewhere......
If that is the case and, if all three lights dont work, then it isn't the transformer. The fault must be elsewhere in soemthing that is common to all three lights (switch, voltage feed, wiring etc).... so more investigation needed.

Re changing to LED. Most of those are 230volt (mains) powered, so you'd need to rewire the lights so the 230v is to each light position, not through one (or more) transformers.

 

[kevg487]

Found the issue. One of the termianls had melted.

 

[terryplumb]

What terminal ?

 

[kevg487]

Seems to be 3 terminal ( 1 for each light) that has live to live and neutral to neutral. There's a big round junction box

 

[Taylortwocities]

Seems to be 3 terminal ( 1 for each light) that has live to live and neutral to neutral. There's a big round junction box

Photo needed!

 

[kevg487]

I snipped the damaged cable and fitted a new terminal box. All working now