I have about 20 recessed light fixtures. About half are in insulated ceilings and half are uninsulated. They are Noralighting NHIC-17QAT.
http://www.noralighting.com/Product.aspx?pid=7669
They are 10 years old.
A couple months ago I put a LED bulbs in to see how they worked. After a few weeks one that had a LED bulb stopped working. It turns out the heat sensor that prevents the fixture from overheating went bad. Noralighting was kind enough to send me a couple replacement sockets with heat sensors.
They told me that the connection had to be made at the junction box; if I just wire nutted it in where the bulb is, the connections might overheat and fail.
Questions...
1) How on earth would I make connections at the junction box. It looks to me like I would have to rip the ceiling open. Presumably there is an easier way, but it beats me what that might be.
2) The LED bulb is much cooler in operation than the incandescent bulbs the fixture was designed for. Would wire nutting a new sensor in really be a problem? Even if it was a problem, it would just be an open circuit, which would be plenty annoying but not a serious problem. Am I underestimating this?
3) Some of the fixtures are in 17' high ceilings. Trying to fix the fixtures would be a real problem. If I ran LED bulbs in them, could I just short the heat sensors out if they failed? They don't really get hot to the touch; it is hard to see how they could start a fire.
Thanks for your help.
