Loft insulation over downlight

amsquared

We have 15 downlights spread between 3 rooms. They are all LED or low energy spots. I am installing top up insulation and note that the original insulation has been cleared from around the lights.

Has anybody used downlight covers and if so which ones - they all seem very expensive e.g. about £8 each.

Cliff

I don't know what the regs are, so this is just an opinion.
LEDs don't get hot, just warm and will not be a fire hazard. The insulation material is not inflammable so you should be pretty safe.

Fire proof light and speaker covers were more to do with the hole in the ceiling allowing fire to penetrate, rather then the actual fitting causing the fire.
Public address speakers usually had a fire proof box behind them, for this reason and not because the speaker could catch fire!

loz

Whilst LEDs might not get hot, there is still the issue of creating the necessary fire, thermal and vapour barrier once you have made a hole in your ceiling, which is what the downlighter effectively is.
Just laying insulation over the downlighter won't create a fire barrier, nor be fully effective against vapour.
I used the Aico Loft caps above our bedrooms as they are the only ones that provide a proper thermal and vapour seal to prevent condensation in your loft.

Alternatively, replace your downlighters with something like the JCC FGLED range as these meet all the building regs for fire and vapour, and loft insulation can be laid directly on top without a cover.  I have used these in my bathrooms.  £20-30 each, but when you think that includes the bulb and the downlighter inc a 10 year warranty, and does away with the need for a loft cap, they are not bad value.  I would have used them throughout the house if I was starting again.

Cliff

Those JCC FGLED look nice. Way to go, especially on a big job. Little expensive mind you, but do conform to regs.

loz

I am fitting mine tomorrow. Will let you know how I get on.

I have just completed putting AICO loft caps over all the 21 downlighters we have in the bedrooms and landing (and a top up layer of loft insulation going in tomorrow too). They are quite tall, so in a couple of places they had to be cut down so they would fit under cross beams.  But as all the bulbs are LED I don't think having a bit less space for heat dissipation is an issue.

But there wasn't enough space above the bathrooms because the pipework runs from the cold tank right over the bathrooms, and so it made it double fiddly to actual get in there and seal in an Aico cap.   But I was particularly concerned the bathroom downlighters were a key culprit in causing condensation in the loft and wanted to fix it.  So hunting around I found these JCC FGLED looked the best bet.  

I already have the downlight fixtures in place and the LED bulbs.  But considering a loft cap and a decent dimmable LED bulb is going to set you back £20, the FDLEDs do look reasonable value if you are starting from scratch especially as there is no fiddling around fitting the loft caps.