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RV-Dreams.com Home -> RV-Dreams Community Forum -> RV Maintenance and Technical Tips -> latest project: Florescent lights converted to LED strip lights
Post Info TOPIC: latest project: Florescent lights converted to LED strip lights
Workinrvers


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latest project: Florescent lights converted to LED strip lights
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I just completed my latest update to our MH. We, like a lot of others, have the florescent light fixtures in the ceiling of our motor home and it feels like we are living in an office. Our lights would sometimes pulsate when some other electrical draw was on in the rig. Neither one of us liked it and wanted a change. I had read this post on IRV2 and decided to give the conversion a try. I ordered the led strip lights (non-waterproof) from a dealer on ebay and also ordered a bag of quick connects at the same time to help in the wiring process. The LED's (approx 16' long strip wound in a spool) arrived a few days ago and I decided to tackle the job yesterday. The instructions on the linked post said to take the light fixtures down from the ceiling and remove all the florescent fixtures. I decided to leave mine attached to the ceiling as well as leave all the florescent hardware intact and just remove the bulbs. The LED's come with 3M peel and stick tape already applied to the back of the strip so I measured the length I wanted and cut the strips as close as possible to this length. The strips have cutting points every 3 LED lights and you just use a pair of scissors and then attach the quick connect to the end to supply power to that strip. I cut the main wires coming into the light fixture and then wired the strips to these using crimp connectors. Once everything was wired up (and tested) I peeled off the outer cover from the tape on the back and pressed the strips into place alongside the cover for the ballast inside the fixture. I put two strips in each light (we have 3 fixtures) and this gives us about the same amount of light as before, plus it is not as harsh and doesn't "pulsate". smile

This mod was very easy to do and was "budget friendly". The whole project costs less then $50 and we have enough LEDs for a future project, maybe a night light in the bathroom? Hmmmmm.

Here is a link to the before and after pics.

LED lights

 

Phil

 



-- Edited by Workinrvers on Monday 2nd of December 2013 11:36:54 AM



-- Edited by Workinrvers on Monday 2nd of December 2013 11:37:34 AM



-- Edited by Workinrvers on Monday 2nd of December 2013 11:40:49 AM

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Jo And Craig


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Would love to see the photos, but don't have a Google U/N and P/W.  Terry, can you post them here, maybe?  Thanks!



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Workinrvers


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here ya go:

DSCN2055.JPG
From RV projects
DSCN2056.JPG
From RV projects


-- Edited by Workinrvers on Monday 2nd of December 2013 03:20:24 PM

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Lucky Mike


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I like.......Very nice and the price for 3 fixtures under 50 even better!!!!!!!


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Jo And Craig


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Oh, yeah!  Love the softness.  We are not bright light people.  We can get around very easy with just night lights, or something similar.  One day, our rig will probably have rope accent lighting for when we are plugged in.  Boondocking?  I'm sure my DH will figure it out.  He's a genius!  (He really is!!!)



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Terry and Jo


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The "softness" comment throws me a bit here.  Is the top photo the one with the florescent lights in it?  It certainly looks like it to me, and that is the one that seems to be the softer light.  If my assumption is right, then you have more light with the LED's in the second photo.  Our 2010 Mobile Suites has some of the lights as LED's and we are gradually replacing the older halogen bulbs with LED's as well.

At any rate, I'd say you did a really good job.

Terry



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Workinrvers


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Terry and Jo wrote:

The "softness" comment throws me a bit here.  Is the top photo the one with the florescent lights in it?  It certainly looks like it to me, and that is the one that seems to be the softer light.  If my assumption is right, then you have more light with the LED's in the second photo.  Our 2010 Mobile Suites has some of the lights as LED's and we are gradually replacing the older halogen bulbs with LED's as well.

At any rate, I'd say you did a really good job.

Terry

 Terry,

We had 2 different kind of bulbs in the 2 living room fixtures. The one pictured (the first photo) gave off a yellowish light while the other one gave off the harsher brighter light. The yellow is a little more pronounced in the photo, it didn't look quite that bad in person but either way we really had enough of the florescent. The lights now are a softer light with the two strips of LED's and you can make it even brighter by using more strips. 

 

Phil



-- Edited by Workinrvers on Tuesday 3rd of December 2013 03:45:04 AM

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MarkS


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LEDs are going to replace all the other bulbs for typical use. In RVs they can't be beat, no heat and low low current draw. We had a truck at work that had LED headlights, we all really liked them. They come in so many configurations that you can apply them to almost any situation. This modification is a perfect example. Already the price is dropping. I replaced two 75 watt bulbs in our dining room for less than $20 with dim able LED bulbs. Especially in the RV where you want to add exterior lights or mood lighting, like the under counter lights in the trilogy and mobile suites, the low voltage and ease of installation of LEDs makes us all lighting technicians.

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baysailor


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waiting for the UPS guy to drop off my LED light strips, so I can convert some fluorescent fixtures in my motorhome. I wonder if he reads the RV Dream forum? biggrin.gif



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Workinrvers


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baysailor wrote:

waiting for the UPS guy to drop off my LED light strips, so I can convert some fluorescent fixtures in my motorhome. I wonder if he reads the RV Dream forum? biggrin.gif

biggrinbiggrinbiggrin

 



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Cowdog353


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Phil, Thanks for the post, I just replaced mine, got tired of buying those expensive florescents. And seems like they become a little more dull as time passes.
LED strips were easy job,brighter light.
Jim


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Bill and Linda


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For those considering any type of boondocking – you just don’t realize how much battery power the incandescent and even florescent lights require in comparison to LED’s.

One incandescent 12 volt bulb can easily take more power than all the LED’s in our rig take.  We have a Trimetric 2025 battery monitor in the rig (highly recommended and a pretty easy install by the way) and it can tell you to the tenth of an amp how much current (amps) you are drawing / using or charging.  Going to LED’s was like adding another 50 amp hours of battery capacity to the bank.  And LED’s are a lot lighter than batteries.

Word of caution: Some LED’s are “blue white.”  Some are “warm white.”  For those that care, the “warm white” are more like sunlight and the “blue white” are, in our opinion, quite harsh.  Some may feel otherwise.  Just info

Bill



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bjoyce


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I also recommend getting LEDs that can handle large voltage ranges, many now come ready to handle 8 to 30 volts and can be used in 12 and 24 volt (bus) systems. An RV with a temperature compensated battery charger can have voltages in the 11 (large inverter on drained batteries) to 15 volt (cold weather charging) range. There are LEDs available that will fail early if they get these kinds of voltages. The first couple years LED lights were available in Quartzsite, many found out the cheap ones would last only a couple days of usage. This was especially bad on cold mornings when the battery chargers would push voltages over 14.4 volts.

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