Newell Classic Flourescent Light Fixtures

[GORDON HUMMEL]

Being stuck in the Snow in Ok, I decided to install the LED's I purchased in the past. The bedroom ceiling lights were first. After removing the fixtures, I removed the old guts & glued in 1/2" pvc. Then I put the LED strips on the pvc & thats it. $4.00 of Leds for each fixture. Probably less light than the old ones, but fine in this application. Also +90% less power consumpion.

Also replaced the lights in the cove in the front. Just mounted the LED strips to some pvc & that was it. Checked after installing just one side & could not tell the difference.

Also replaced the 8 down lights under the cove lights with LEDS. Never used them before because they got so hot. $4.00 ea for the new ones & they are brighter!

[Richard and Rhonda]

NICE !

Can you tell us a little more about the source of the LED's, and also how you are controlling the amperage. I think I saw some resistors.

[Brad Townsend]

I sure would like to know where to get led's for $4

[GORDON HUMMEL]

All the LED's I have purchased are 12v plug & play. There are other components mounted to the strips/G4 lights that are probably resistors?
The first LED's I purchased were from superbrightled.com. They were 3 x 1 meter,180 LED's with 4 connectors for $80. I mounted them in the ps cove. 0.6 amps vs 9.0 amps for the old fl on both sides.
The next purchases was from sirs-e.com. They were 1 x 5 meter, 300 LED's for $32. I mounted this on the ds cove. 1.2 amps. I also used these same LEDs in the ceiling fixtures in the bedroom. Original fl's used 1.3 amps, LEDs .6.
Clearly the LEDs from superbrightleds.com use far less power, but are +/- 4 x more expensive. They also appear brighter, than the ones from sirs-e.com that have a blue tint.
I might have been better off to get the white, instead of cool white for more light & less blue, 1300 color temp vs 3000 color temp
On the front down lights, I changed the fixtures some time ago as the original protruded up into the cove area. When I add the A/C ducts in the cove area, I needed the room the original fixtures were using.
My original purchase of the G4 LEDs was from ledtrailerlights.com. They were $50 for 3. They worked great, but very expensive. I found the same G4 led from xespiderx for $3.69.
They physically look a little different than the first ones, but work great & appear to have the same light output. 1 Halogen G4 bulb uses .9 amps; ALL 8 OF THE LEDS USED A TOTAL OF 1 AMP!!!!!!!!!!
I'm no pro on lighting & I'm not sure these will never pay for themselves, but they should last a lot longer on battery's when not plugged in to ac.


http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...-flexible.html

http://www.sirs-e.com/st/3528-cold-w...ac9c8c8ffc7b38

http://ledtrailerlights.com/rv/RV-G4-led.htm

http://cgi.ebay.com/MR11-G4-Warm-Whi...item2eb271d087

Got to find another project, it just started snowing again.

[Hardtrigger]

Gordon that is out of sight!!! I was just about ready to replaced bulbs that were out from previous owner and was talking yesterday with my girl on wether r
there was a better wat than flouresents to light up the coach! Walla you answered my questions. Wow this forum site just won't quit with all the knowledge shared here. Nice work and thanx for sharing. Robert

[GORDON HUMMEL]

Pricing on LED has dropped substancially over the last 2 months.
When I started this project, I was using what is called a 3528 led. The larger 5050 led was out of my price range & need @ the time.
The 5050 uses +/- 50% more power per led than the 3528, but puts out +/- 300% more light.

In the beginning, I paid $80 for a 16' strip of 300 led 3528's.
6 weeks ago, I paid $50 for a 16' strip of 150 led 5050's.
This week I paid $35 for a 16' strip of 300 led 5050's.

I am changing the white leds I used in the front coves, to RGB 5050's. This was I can have any color I want and have it fade, flash or whatever; ie. white.

Now all I need is that mirrored ball droping from the ceiling !!!!!!!!!!

[Brad Townsend]

Gordon, are the lights in the cove as bright as the florescent that used to be there?
Brad

[encantotom]

i cant speak for gordon, but i have done the calc's and with 2 strips of 5050 smd led's at 60 led per meter, the lumens are roughly equivalent (a little less, but more useable light). the thing that i am anxious to see is if it is better quality light. a flourescent tube has a lot of wasted light as it projects 360 degrees. the challenge with getting really bright led's is they get warm and take alot of power. if the idea is to save power, then you have to compromise a little. i will do some power measurements with my experiments and will post them. i will also see if i can find a lux meter to measure light intensity too.

i am in china as i write this and yesterday after work i went to a led factory. i got a tour of the factory and their showroom was really cool. i bought some "sample" strip lights and actually waited in their exec conf room while they made my order. i met with the owner, a 35 year old very gracious fellow who had started this factory right out of college at 23. he had 200 employees there now and appeared to be expanding. i went right on the factory floor where they were using assembly machines i am familiar with from my own work.

i ordered some from china and they arrived since i have been gone. i ordered 5050 smd led strips in cool white at 60 led per meter. i picked up some rgb 5050's at 30 led per meter and some 3528 (smaller and not quite as bright, but less power) at 60 led per meter in cool white as well while i was in the factory. i also got a couple of rgb controllers with remotes

it was in the boonies of outer shanghai but was alot of fun as i spent time with the owner. they assemble the strips and also make a number of other high intensity lights and lighting boxes. they showed me a number of flourscent replacments. they have the tubes with led's in them but they are quite pricey. then they use another technique where they put the led's on the side of the fixture long wise on opposing sides. that way you tend not to see the leds and the light is more even. i may experiment with that and put some reflective material inside the fixture.

it was fun, but was way out of the way. the driver on the way back to the hotel got lost, even with gps. the pictures are of the outside of the factory and the blurry one is of the conf room i waited in while they made my order. the driver one is him pulled over looking at a map where to go.

tom

[GORDON HUMMEL]

I would say that the 3528's x 60 led's per meter, put out equal light as the original flourescent fixtures. I had 4 x 4' & 1 x 2' flourescents, which used 10 amps, vs the leds that use 1.5 amps !!!!!!!!

If I were to do it again with 5050's, I would use the 30 leds per meter as I did this change to conserve power when not plugged in.

[encantotom]

i will have enough of the different ones to try that it will be fun to see how they turn out. gordon, you are the one that got me going on this....too bad you couldnt have been with me at the led factory.....

i agree, the reason is to save power and still have satisfactory light.

thanks for all the help. you have been great!
tom

[Brad Townsend]

I like to conserve where I can, we boondock in the winter so we count every watt.
Gordon if you went to half the leds per meter wouldn't that give half the light.
The lights,tv, and freezer are the big draws when boondocking.

[GORDON HUMMEL]

Brad,
If your counting watts & don't have a battery monitor, I highly recommend the Tri-metric's 2020.

I may have confused you on the power used on the Leds. 1/2 the leds of a given size, will use 1/2 the power. Tom & I were working with 2 different size leds hense the the confusion.

Either 60 x 3528 or 30 x 5050 leds per meter, will replicate the light produced by the original flourscents.

Try to mount the leds as high as possible in the cove to get the best light. I used 3/4" pvc pipe raised up about 4-5" in the front cove. These leds are the 3528 x 60.
I just remembered I put 5050 x 30 leds in the bathroom cove light. Because I did not not want to remove the entire cabinet, I just installed the led strip, with extra long leads, on the flourescent bulb & reinstalled it. I was able to reach up through the cabinet & find the leads going to the original light. They were plenty long enough to attach to the new leds. took about 5 minutes.

Also, if needed, don't use the connectors that some companies sell. Just put a little drop of solder on the led strip + and -; strip the wire about 1/4" & tin it. Thats work the best.

[Brad Townsend]

Thanks Gordon. I have the Tri Metric and it is worth every penny.
I would be in the dark without it.

[Hardtrigger]

Nice followed your guys leads and replaced the halogen bulbs in the hockey puck lights with LES's from Lowes and they had them on clearance priced at 12.95 instead of 25.95 original cost. Work great and twices as bright at 80% less energy and much, much cooler to the touch and nice for staying cooler in summer living. My question to those who have swapped over from flouresent to LED is when you used the LED strips did you have to convert any of the wiring for the LED's to work on what was intended for flouresents as I am ordering strips here in a day or so and not sure if I need transformers or any other tool to convert to LED wiring? Want to replace flouresents in the coves in living,and bedroom areas. Thanx in advance, Robert

[GORDON HUMMEL]

The flourescents in our era Newell's are 12v dc, as are all the Leds I've purchased.
Just plug & play

[RussWhite]

Originally Posted by Hardtrigger

Nice followed your guys leads and replaced the halogen bulbs in the hockey puck lights with LES's from Lowes and they had them on clearance priced at 12.95 instead of 25.95 original cost. Work great and twices as bright at 80% less energy and much, much cooler to the touch and nice for staying cooler in summer living. My question to those who have swapped over from flouresent to LED is when you used the LED strips did you have to convert any of the wiring for the LED's to work on what was intended for flouresents as I am ordering strips here in a day or so and not sure if I need transformers or any other tool to convert to LED wiring? Want to replace flouresents in the coves in living,and bedroom areas. Thanx in advance, Robert

Robert,

Could you post a picture of the lamp and maybe a manufacturer and model number? Thanks, Russ

[Hardtrigger]

Russ will do. Just to let you know the lighting is like 300% brighter and burns very cool. I am going to replace 100% of all lights and televisions to LED and anything else I may exchange for LED"s for my intentions are to get away from crowds and boondock like 75% of the time out there( 3 months ) and want to reduce battery consumption. Will post pic and info right away! Be great to find a LED coffee maker (just kidding ). Robert

[Hardtrigger]

[Hardtrigger]

Can somone please share how I may take pic that was sent to my e-mail copy that and past here so I have standard size pic for Russ to see? This sucks having all this up to date equipment and not knowing how to use it. How embarassing! Thanks, Robert

[Hardtrigger]