These lamps are reasonably inexpensive, however, they suffer from the disadvantage that the 25w lamps generate too much heat and the lamps generally only have a short life.
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A relatively simple solution is to convert them to low voltage LED lamps.
Luxeon 1watt lamps (white) are available at Surplustronics in Auckland for NZ$9.80 gst incl and a driver board for $NZ$5.50.
The light output is comparable to the G9 lamp with the advantage of long life and low running cost.
Remove the ceramic holder within the lamp interior by removing the two holding screws. Remove the plastic mounting block on the rear of the unit along with the plastic holder. Cut off the cable clamp. The driver board will fit snuggly into the gap with just a little filing of the plastic mounts once you've drilled small holes to mount the circuit board. Use a felt marker to mark the pin holes and also to mark the underside which pins are negative and positive.
You'll need to solder wires first using a light gauge wire. Using a small strip of plastic (cut from an old container or lid) drill 2 holes and using the origninal mounting block screws, mount the board. Once mounted it should look like this |
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It's then a matter of soldering the output wires from the driver board to the luxeon lamp and using contact cement glue it to the base where the ceramic holder used to sit. It should look like this. Because there is no heat, it is quite safe to glue the lamp to the mount. |
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You'll need to obtain a low voltage DC power supply to power your lamps. The driver board will operate on voltages between 5 - 24v DC, but the optimum voltage is 7- 14v DC. The current rating of the board is around 300ma.
The original Superlux lamps cost me $14 each from Mitre10, so the total cost was NZ$29.40. I used low voltage transformers already on hand. LED lamps available commercially cost in excess of NZ$70 each not including a driver/transformer so the effort is worthwhile.