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Converting to led

January 06, 2018, 09:15:26 am

Spent the last hour searching for a write up a member did on stripping out the old tubes in the overhead light fittings and replacing with self adhesive led strips .
It included photos showing where to cut the strip and solder the + - connections.
Anyone else remember this post ?
Thanks Jim

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Re: Converting to led

Reply #1 – January 06, 2018, 09:28:41 am

Here is my thread.  Don't know if that's the one you're referring to...

Another (Interior) LED Project

Or perhaps this one by "The Other Chuck":

LED Lighting replacement Part 1

Or this one by Pierce:

LED Interior Lights Conversion

You can cut the LED strips on any of the "cut lines" clearly marked on the strip.  There is usually a cut line every 3 LEDs.  On each individual strip, you can solder your power leads to any of the (+) or (-) copper dots.  Your wires do not necessarily have to attach to the ends of the strip.  You could solder to the copper dots in the middle of the strip if that works better.  You could also solder the positive lead to one end of the strip, and the negative lead to the other end.  EASY!   

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Re: Converting to led

Reply #2 – January 06, 2018, 09:56:33 am

Wow
Thanks for the fast response, I did convert a couple of fittings a few years back but thought I should refresh the failing memory before I started on a few more .

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Re: Converting to led

Reply #3 – January 06, 2018, 10:03:49 am

Lots of threads on this topic.  Ideas and techniques evolve and improve over time.

This is a pretty easy project than gets you huge benefits for your time and not much money.

Another (Interior) LED Project

Use good quality LED strips.  The ones mentioned above seem to be the best I have found.  Warm white (lower Kelvin temperatures) or cool white (higher Kelvin temperatures) are very user dependent.  Get a roll of each to see that they look like before committing one way or the other.  We like the warm white.

Solder your connection and cover the soldered joints with a short piece of heat shrink tube.  It is the most reliable way to do it.  My shorter (18") fixtures have 4 or 5 strips and an added switch.  The main switch powers the fixture and one strip.  The second switch turns on and off the rest of the strips.  Sometimes less it OK.  I uses the glazing tape to stick the strips on to a thin alumimun sheet and the the glazing tape to stick the panel into the fixture.  Much easier to do it on the bench and test as you go. 

My 36" long kitchen and bathroom flourescents are done the same way, 5 - 34" strips in each.  Wonderful.

If you are using multiple strips in a fixture wire them in parallel rather than series.  This gives each strip section more consistant voltage. 

Lots of dimmer choices out there too.  All of our LR LED ceiling lights are on a dimmer.  We use it all the time.

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