Halogen spotlight question

[dgo1212]

Earlier this year I decided to replace the lights in our lounge and kitchen, as I was re-boarding the knackered ceilings anyway I thought it would be a good idea to fit halogen spotlights as the wiring would be easy to do with the ceilings removed, had ceilings plastered and fitted the new lights and it looked great, however now I've had them a few month they're actually a massive pain in the arse, when they're on they almost blind you if you sit under them ,the bulbs are forever blowing, when they blow they trip the rcd and the amount of light lost from one blown bulb is unbelievable, they're a couple of quid a bulb so can become costly if like me you let them all blow till there's only a couple left, have looked into led bulbs but at £12 a bulb and 18 bulbs in total there's no way I'm going down that road, needless to say they're coming out and I'm going back to normal light fittings and a flourescent tube in kitchen, problem is I'm going to be left with 18 holes, Filling them in is gonna be a pain as it means the ceilings will need painting again, and I really don't feel like doing that sh1t all over again, are there any kind of white plastic caps that I can just push into the holes? Have tried google and ebay and comes up with nothing, karma for anyone who can find something suitable

[Fairies attack]

See if you can get a small piece of plaster board then, tape the hole up with plaster tape, and skim over the top.

I know what you mean by them been a pain in the arse. My last house was full of them, and it was either walk around in the dark or replace them.

[kestrel]

Personally i'd leave the fittings in the ceiling and bite the bullet and buy LED bulbs. Halogen bulbs are an expensive to run pain in the arse, especially in kitchens and bathrooms and also, due to the heat they generate are a considerable fire risk unless fitted with protective hoods, whereas LED's are cheap to run and produce virtually no heat. I've replaced all of the ceilings upstairs in my house and fitted LED downlighters in every room, including IP65 units in the bathroom, when i fit a new kitchen next year i'll be putting LED's in there too.
The old bathroom ceiling had 6 halogen downlighters using a total of 300w, the 6 LED's that replaced them use a total of 30w, so the saving on energy costs after the initial outlay is massive. Factor in the number of times you have to replace halogens compared to the 10,000 hour life of an LED and after a few years they will pay for themselves.
____________________
Isle of Man.........Road Racing Capital Of The World

[Rogerborg]

What fittings do you have? LED GU10's are under £3 these days.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[neil.]

LED spots aren't very bright and too directional. You could try compact fluorescents if they are GU10 240v fittings, those are quite good, used them everywhere in our old house which had these fittings all over the place (I hate them personally!) .

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-GU10-11W-50W-WARM-WHITE-LOW-ENERGY-SAVING-SPOT-BULBS-/170644550488?pt=UK_Light_Bulbs&hash=item27bb353358#ht_500wt_922

The warm white ones are really nice.

[Sparks!]

[neil.]

Sorry, I should have mentioned those Luxeon etc. LEDs, they really are good but I haven't got any first hand experience of them in GU10 fittings (got one on a head torch and that looks like the sun is coming out of my forehead!). Are any of these high power LED units dimmer compatible (I do know Megaman do sell dimmer compatible compact florescents)?

[Sparks!]