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View Full Version : LED interior lighting experiments in the 02


encantotom
04-27-2012, 04:26 PM
hi all,

in my 90 i converted all the interior lighting to led. either with led bulbs like with the #906, or different style strip lighting that i put in place of the flourescent fixtures.

now i am in the mode of figuring out how to do that with lighting that darlene and i both consider acceptable in the 02.

i attached a few pictures of different led's i have experimented with so far.

darlene and i like only the cool white color temperature. it is certainly personal preference. the warm light in led is too yellow for us.

in the puck lights i am experimenting with different sizes and brightnesses. they are G4 halogen bulbs with 10w ones in the small puck lights and in mine the larger round lights are 20w.

the flat round ones are with different number and sizes of LED's. the smallest one uses a larger number of less bright led's known as the 3528 led. the entire thing is smaller in diameter and fits nicely in the puck lights. however they are not bright enough for us. so i got some of the 5050led bigger ones. btw, i have to trim the length of the prongs on them and in some cases take the plastic prong separator off to get them to fit into the fixture. you have to play with them. the 12 led one fits ok but is tight and requires me to take the first metal reflector out of the puck light fixture to get it to fit in and get the lense on. the 15 led one i had to file carefully the end of the light where just the circuit board is (be careful to not file where there are internal traces). and it will fit but the led's touch the glass. the 15led one is nice and bright but does get hot. and the lens cover is not exactly flush with the ceiling but some of the halogen ones are not either.

so, still playing around with them before i order 65 of them (yea, there are a ton in the ceiling in mine). i order 4-6 at a time so i can do an entire little area to see how the light is.

the strip lights are used in various places. the bigger led ones are 5050 led's. the one is a spacing of 60 led's per meter and the other is 30 led's per meter. the 30 led per meter one is a color rgb one and is waterproof with plastic encapsulating the entire strip. i also have a remote control for that one that allows you to change the colors and flashing pattern. i used them for kicklighting where the aisle lights were. i used the 5050 with 60led per meter to replace the closet lights and they are much better and way less hot.

it is a matter of how much light you want and how much power you are trying to save. you can still chew up a lot of power with led's if you want really bright light.

i am also replacing the rope lights in the valences and have done one already with an led in cool white. makes a huge difference in the feel and look with a bright white vs the dingy yellow light that was there before.

the round column bulbs are g4 replacements for the wall sconces that i have in the living area. i played with different ones to get the brightness i wanted. the big one is the one that puts out enough light for us.

again, a very different look than the original bulbs but we like it.

in most cases you save a lot of power per bulb, in some cases if you use alot of led's you dont save that much. depends...

it is always fun....

later

tom

lbrachfe
04-27-2012, 04:55 PM
Tom,
How do LEDs differ in reading light and do they last as long as halogen ?

encantotom
04-27-2012, 05:31 PM
we like the leds for interior light. you have to decide for yourself if you do or if you like the light color and in particular you have to get the brightness that you find necessary. as for lifetime, a typical g4 halogen bulb is rated at 2000 hours. an led can be for tens of thousands of hours or more.

encantotom
06-19-2012, 04:47 AM
tonite i put the last lights in the ceiling of the living area. there are 17 plus the center light. i replaced the 10w halogens with round led ones. i used cool white and the light is awesome! so much better than the yellowish halogens and much lower power. i had to take the center reflector out of the puck to get the round led to fit. i experimented with 4 different ones to get the ones that i liked. they were $1.78 each. better light than the halogen and they should last forever.

since led's are diodes, it was a crap shoot if they were going to work without reversing the power wires. about half worked and the other half i had to take the fixture out of the ceiling and cut the wires and reverse them.

it takes quite a bit of time but the result is really worth it. we love the white light.

i will keep doing the entire coach but will take my time doing it.

i also had a few marker lights out. so i also finished (all but the one inbetween the slides at the roof) replacing all the marker lights with LED versions.

it was 110 degrees out today so it was a little toasty up on the scaffold doing them....

tom