LED Florescent Light replacement

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LED Florescent Light replacement

October 23, 2013, 05:52:45 pm

I replaced the overhead Thin-Lite Fluorescents with these LEDs:
Wholesale Led Module - Buy Free Shipping 5050 SMD White LED Module Light Lamp,
The lights are a strip of 20 blocks of 3 led's wired about 3 inches apart with pressure sensitive tape on the back.

Replacement was straightforward I cut the 12 volt wire and removed the complete Thin-Lite fixture. stuck the new LED's to the top of the light box, attached the 12 volt leads and I was done... took me about a hour and the whole coach was done..
My cost was $42.00 for a package of 5, enough to do all 5 lights in the coach. The lights are brighter then the florescent's, the color is not what I would call a warm white, more white then yellow. That works for me as when I am using the overhead lights I am needing light for my old eyes to see.
I've had them in for about 4 months now and have not had any issues.

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #1 – October 23, 2013, 07:26:49 pm

That's so easy it's almost cheating....Nice.

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #2 – October 23, 2013, 09:42:06 pm

Very nice, Ted.

Roger

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #3 – October 23, 2013, 09:43:14 pm

I've been replacing the florescent lights, and when I got to the ceiling ones it looks like they are 120vac, not 12vdc like the others. Anyone know for sure?

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #4 – October 23, 2013, 09:46:59 pm

12v on ours. Ez to check, with no shore and inverter off, if they come on...

Pierce

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #5 – October 24, 2013, 01:55:14 am

I recently replaced all my fixtures.
12v.

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #6 – October 24, 2013, 09:13:21 am

The 'little' rocker switches like your water pump, and water heater controls, are 12V. My '90 GV has all lights 12v.
110/120V switches are normal household type switches, of which, the only one I have is for the engine block heater.

Hope it helps.

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #7 – October 24, 2013, 10:34:09 am

I completely gutted and the wiring and ballast from the Thin-Lite fixtures, left the fixtures in place, and mounted the LEDs to the fixtures. Leaving them in place gives a nice white reflective surface for the LED to reflect off of.

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #8 – October 24, 2013, 09:43:26 pm

I've adde LEDs to 7 of our fluorescents so far. I installed strip LEDs from China and put in a switch to allow switching back to fluorescents for brighter light when needed.

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #9 – October 31, 2013, 09:45:45 am

I was at the Atlanta Good Sam/Camping World rally and purchased some LED replacements for my under cabnet lite fixtures. I got 6 for 75.00. I like the upgrade. I am happy about that, but I have noticed that when dry camping/no genset/over the air antenna that my flat screen tv loses signal or pixalates a lot when I use the new LEDs. If shore line connected, no problem. Where is the interference coming from? What do I do about it?

Pat,

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #10 – October 31, 2013, 09:49:06 am

WE have a "sound problem" when I turn the over-the-sink LEDs on while the TV is on. Everything is LEDs but those two are the only ones that give us trouble. It seems to happen more on inverter than shore power.

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #11 – October 31, 2013, 10:52:11 am

Here is a good read on EMI interference: Radio interference from LED lighting | EMC and Regulatory Compliance

Also, true sine wave inverters are less prone to radio/TV interference. Lots of $$ to invest unless you use a laser printer or want your coffee heated quickly in the microwave.

Pierce

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #12 – October 31, 2013, 11:24:59 am

If an LED is directly powered from a clean 12vdc source it should emit no EMI. If they use an internal power supply then *that* can emit serious EMI depending upon the circuit. If a 12vdc LED is creating EMI then there must be some alternating current (AC) component in its power supply.

One way to stop (or at least reduce) EMI is to use ferrite beads on the connecting wires. These beads slip over the wires and "damp" the RF. They work best if the wire is run through once and then doubled through again.

Is anyone having EMI problems with the LED strips they're using to replace flourescent bulbs?

There are "zero EMI" LEDs on the market. Dr. LED (http://www.drled.com) claims zero radio interference from their LED lights. Their products seem to be aimed more towards the marine industry with dome lights, running lights, bi-color chart lights, etc. but there might be more than I know about. Not as cheap as the devices from China.

Available from marine stores like West Marine, Fisheries Supply, etc.

In the past, as a long-time amateur radio operator, I've had serious EMI problems with flourescent lights; especially on our cruising sailboat where the power available was (very) limited. I simply kept a few incandescent light fixtures which I used when I needed to get onto the radio.

Craig

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #13 – October 31, 2013, 07:41:58 pm

Hi Ted, in retrospect, would you buy the Warm White instead?

Thanx

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #14 – October 31, 2013, 07:58:16 pm

As many of you know I am total LED ,in and out, and have zero interference with any of them, strips in ceiling lights or replacements for halogen ones.!!!
John H

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #15 – October 31, 2013, 10:22:53 pm

@DaveLarose I started changing out my florescents with warm white but by accident bought some plain white. Turns out we like the white much better. The warm white has a slight yellow cast that we don't like much. Although we didn't know that until we did a side by side comparison! I've changed out all the florescents to led and going back now and changing out the warm white to white.

When you buy leds it's advisable to buy them all at the same time and from the same vendor. Otherwise you can end up with slight variations in color as they might be from different manufacturers. I ran 2 strips for each light and added a switch to turn one strip off to dim them a little if I need to.

see ya
ken

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #16 – November 01, 2013, 12:37:26 am

John & Ken,

Where did you all purchased your led bulbs and strips for inside and outside; I'd like to change them all. Also the outside red and yellow ones. DW asked that i replace the yellow metal light fixtures from bedroom & bathroom.
I saw some instructions on youtube for the florescent to led replacement, i understood that we basically disconnect the florescent ballast correct?

Thank you,
Al

I see ( http://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Trailer_Lights-sf-Clearance_Lights.aspx ) has some. I just need to figure out what size to order.

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #17 – November 01, 2013, 08:32:11 am

@propman I followed Pierce Stewart's advice in this thread. (thanks again Pierce for blazing this trail and the excellent write up)

LED Interior Lights Conversion

As mentioned above I did use 2 strips of leds instead of one and recommend white instead of warm white. Of course you will need to make that decision for yourself.

The led strips are little cheaper now on ebay. IIRC I paid $11 a roll 6 months ago. It does take about 3 weeks for them to show up from China. Humm just found this guy from CA so shipping should be much quicker. Super Bright 600 LED 3528 SMD White 5M 500CM LED Strip Light New Design Car Auto $9.99 with free shipping.

The wires are are little painful to solder on but after you do a few it's not so bad. I do recommend a strong pair of reading glasses so you can see what your doing while soldering. At least I need them your eyes may be better than mine.

I'm very happy with the conversion and have not had any problems with any of the leds.

I haven't changed out my exterior lights and haven't found a solution for the bathroom fixtures yet. Maybe someone else can chime in with one.

Here is a link to a thread where I posted an image of one of my conversions.

LED tutorial

EDITED: to correct grammer (original was posted at 4:30am I couldn't sleep or think obviously)

see ya
ken

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #18 – November 01, 2013, 10:01:22 am

Ken,

After that, I'm all puffed up and my top hat won't fit!

Thanks for the pat on the back. You did a good job on the hydraulic pump post. The light conversions are fun to do as well as save juice. I just finished our closets and main cargo bin. I used the larger 5050s in a silicone casing for protection but will post the photos in a few days. I think it was Kent that used the white whites on the ceiling fixtures. I used the warm LEDs on the side interiors, reading lights but not entirely happy with the ceiling. Think Kent was right as the warm on the side and reading gives a cozy feel but the higher Kelvin LEDs seem to work better overhead. Plus I had a roll that went from warm to warmer about half way through and gave a very slight yellow cast to everything.

Nice, neat job on the link light fixture. Once the Euro connector is mounted, you can really feed into the strips anywhere there is a tiny copper dot. The strong glasses are mandatory aren't they?

Pierce

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #19 – November 01, 2013, 11:55:59 am

Ken/ & Pierce Thank you.
I remember reading "Pierce" way

of LED upgrade a while back now. I may just make this a Christmas time project.

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #20 – November 01, 2013, 04:36:41 pm

Quote from: kenhat – November 01, 2013, 08:32:11 am

.... haven't found a solution for the bathroom fixtures yet. Maybe someone else can chime in with one.

I changed out both the lights in the bathroom (the vertical set of three on each side) and the ones over the vanity in the bedroom (in the U225 and in many of the 90s GVs) with over-the-counter LEDs I bought at an auto parts store that carried LEDs. I took one of the lights out and just carried it in and found one that matched. They weren't cheap but this was almost 2 years ago. I also replaced the lamps in the reading lights above the bed (on each side with the shades, with two lights in each one) by the same method.

Ditto for tail lights.

I haven't changed out the flourescent lights yet... but will probably use Pierce's method.

Craig

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #21 – November 02, 2013, 10:42:28 am

Quote from: kenhat – November 01, 2013, 08:32:11 am

@propman I followed Pierce Stewart's advice in this thread. (thanks again Pierce for blazing this trail and the excellent write up)

LED Interior Lights Conversion

I do recommend a strong pair of reading glasses so you can see what your doing while soldering. At least I need them your eyes may be better than mine.

see ya
ken

Pick up a pair of these at your next stop at Harbor Freight. I use these everywhere.

Magnifier Head Strap With Lights

Rick

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #22 – November 02, 2013, 09:10:47 pm

Quote from: kb0zke – October 23, 2013, 09:43:14 pm

I've been replacing the florescent lights, and when I got to the ceiling ones it looks like they are 120vac, not 12vdc like the others. Anyone know for sure?

David, in case no one directly answered your question, the thin-lite fluorescent ceiling lamps in my coach are 120 vac, but the fixture itself is powered by 12 vdc. The ballast unit in the fixture converts the 12 vdc to 120 vac to power the lamps. I believe most if not all the coaches are that way. You should be able to check it with a voltmeter after removing the lamps and metal cover between the lamps to expose the ballast.

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #23 – November 02, 2013, 10:58:03 pm

Al, sorry did not see your question.
I bought rolls (15') long from the same place Pierce did on Amazon or Ebay. I made my own bathroom fixtures to replace the Las Vegas ones. I did post pics a while back on them. The Thinlite cieling ones I took down and took all ballast and fixture out and put 2 strips of the waterproof LEDs in place and wired direct as Pierce did. Outside lights are all new LEDs fixtures incl the rear light units.
John H

Re: LED Florescent Light replacement

Reply #24 – November 03, 2013, 12:28:18 am

Thank you.

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