I have installed under the cabinet halogen puck lights over my kitchen counter, and also a halogen spot light over a piece of artwork. They have both been in place for several months. Recently, the lights in the kitchen have been going out, and then coming back on for no obvious reason, and the light over the artwork has been dimming and returning to full brightness on its own (there is no dimmer on the lamp). Does anyone have any experience with these types of lighting systems? This is the second time the kitchen lighting system has acted this way. The first time I replaced the ballast and things have been fine for several months. The first one lasted several months, too. It seems like a ballast should last a lot longer then several months.
Thanks for any advice.
Replies
I too have halogen pucks under my kitchen cabinets. Random dimming in my system turned out to be a loose connection. I suggest you wiggle the plug in connectors and check the wires at the connectors where they enter the connectors.
Thanks. I'll give that a try.
The problem is most likely in your transformer (not a "ballast"). These transformers have safety devices that will kill the lights when they heat up, and they don't always work properly. My symptoms were on and off flashing, sort of like Christmas lights, then they would stay on steadily after about five minutes of this. I've replaced the transformer in my kitchen system twice now. Though the lighting supply exchanged them for free, it was the process of changing them out that was irritating.
The transformer was my guess, too. I thought that there might be some kind of self resetting circuit breaker in there. I guess I'll just have to keep replacing it. The one in the kitchen's not too bad; I've located the transformer in a fairly convenient place. The one over the artwork is a little harder to get at, but it that's what it takes, then I'll try to find a way to make it more accessible.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
ps. It wasn't obvious when I registered that my "nickname" would be displayed to identify me. I've changed mine to rsteff since some one else is also using the name Dick.