DIY CONVERTING 120V FIXTURE TO 12V | RV LIGHT FIXTURE | CAMPERVAN
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- čas přidán 31. 03. 2020
- This is something of a different video for us, but its something we have wanted to put out for quite some time. I struggled with understanding electrical and how some RVers have such beautiful light fixtures in their rigs. Well, now you too can have those fixtures! This video will show you how to convert an ordinary 120V light fixture to 12V. These instructions will help you. Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE, LIKE, & COMMENT!
Thanks for watching! STAY STEADY!
#diylight #diyelectrical #rvlighting
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We are Zach and Colleen from @steadystreamincashios on IG. We love renovating tiny things such as Airstreams, Argosys, Tiny houses, and Van Conversions. When we aren’t renovating you’ll see us traveling with our kids or going on local adventures! Oh, we also film wedding videos as a hobby! Thanks so much for stopping by! Don’t forget to subscribe!
Our website: www.steadystreamincashios.com
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TOOLS USED IN THIS VIDEO:
120V Sconce- amzn.to/2wERktt
Battery- amzn.to/3dFRwJw
Edison E26 12V bulb- amzn.to/3bArWUm
12V BULB E26- amzn.to/33YBaY8
12GA 12V WIRE- amzn.to/2wOdEAO
2 WIRE SWITCH- amzn.to/2UGER00
TWIST WIRE NUTS- amzn.to/3bASo08
ELECTRICAL TAPE- amzn.to/2vZtesS
WIRE STRIPPERS- amzn.to/2Jo591R
12V LIGHT- amzn.to/2JsycRW
LED PHOTOGRAPHY LIGHT- amzn.to/2QYZljF
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My parents travel trailer from the 1960s came with household light fixtures.
They always carried two sets of light bulbs, 12 volt and 110 volt depending upon whether they plug into shore power or the tow vehicle. We had a household outlet on the back of the truck.
That worked out great.
This helps me so much! I am renovating a vintage RV. RV light fixtures are boring & not pretty. I'm going for the glam - this helps so much!! 👍
So glad it helped you!
Great video, simple and straight to the point, just the way I like doing small projects.
Thanks! Always nice when someone does a simple easy to follow video!
This is a great help! I was thinking about converting a normal house light to 12v a few weeks ago :)
Yes it’s very useful!
This is so awesome, been pondering doing this for a while and like you said at the beginning, there isn't many videos on here that explain this! Thanks man!
Hope it helps! Let me know if you have any questions!
Exactly what I needed! Thank you!
Glad it helped!
Thanks for the steady streamin tips, y'all! This was great!
- Brian + Erin
I've been looking for something like this, thank you
Literally THE BEST video I’ve found on this topic. Very helpful! I gave it a thumbs up 👍🏼 and I subscribed to your channel because of it. Thank you so much for posting this! :)
Well thank you so much for subscribing and the thumbs up! We really appreciate it! Glad it helped you. Thanks for watching!
Awesome project! I'm going to do this myself.
Good video, many thanks! Got more than I needed.
All you need is to change the lightbulb from 110V AC to a 12V DC type lightbulb which may be incandescent, fluorescent, or LED. The base of the socket must match. You either have a the standard screw in type or smaller screw in, or bayonet mount (cars usually), or pin type (halogen bulbs) or wedge or so many other types. Visit your local electrical shop (not big box stores), and match up the base with type you want. They will tell you what base you have and what choice of LED 12V exists. LED is the way to go for RVs. I switched my existing bulbs in RV to LED type which had a double bayonet (or single) base.
I have a more complex issue. I found wonderful vintage lamp fixtures that are 12V AC with a step down transformer in each taking 110V AC current and transforming to 12V AC current for small AC halogen bulbs. I want to change this lamp into a 12V DC lamp. Can I just remove the transformer and add 12V DC bulbs for it to work? I would be wiring into existing DC wiring in my RV. Anyone have answers to this please?
I've done that. You have to be a bit careful because a fixture with a transformer expects a pretty consistent 12v, but automotive 12v can be up to 15v at times depending on what your charger or alternator are doing. An incandescent lamp will run on AC or DC, so that shouldn't be an issue. I have a bunch of fixtures at my off grid cabin where we skipped the transformer and went straight 12vdc off our batteries, including MR16 can lights and low voltage patio lamps.
@@chrislizon7483 can you switch over to the generator and still run the same 12vdc bulbs without blowing them through 110v at your off grid?
@@ryanemmons9778 not directly, but the battery charger on the system will sustain the lights no problem. The lights run off the battery, and the battery is charged by the generator. The lights never see 120v anymore.
Excellent video, thank you so much, I don't want to lose my lamps when I move into the van.
Excellent video! Thanks!
Glad you liked it!
You are a life saver, thank you so much for sharing this!!
So , thank you for sharing your knowledge!!!! I have a 120v fixture want to go thru a transformer, only change the bulb from 120v to 12v correct?
To sum up this video, buy a 12v DC bulb that has a standard (E26) base. The end
And add a switch
I told him that too....he got mad and told me to get off his page.
can I use a 12V LED bulb or does it need to be incandescent?
Thanks for all info
Great video, can I do the same with a 120v garden lights and convert them so it can work with a 12-15v low voltage transformer?
Perfect thank you
Would this also work for led outdoor work lights? I’m talking about the ones like from Home Depot that come on a stand.
So helpful! What if you have a 120volt light fixture that already has a switch? Uncommon, but we have one! Would you just need a 12v lightbulb?
Hey, so I am by no means an electrician lol. But I’m going to go with yes, just make sure to only use the positive and negative wires and forget the ground wire and then get a 12v bulb. If I am thinking logically that sounds right! Sometimes I’m better if I have the object in front of me and I can see the idea. I’m a visual person! Hope that helps!
Question: Could you plug the + & - wires that attach to the battery, into a fuse box instead? I have a fuse box for my other 12v appliances that connects to my battery. OR is a fuse unnecessary in this case? Thank you! :)
Thanks for the video
Thank you for watching! Hope it helped!
That’s exactly what I do!
Ahhhhhhhh. Thankkkk Youuuuuu!❤️
You’re welcome!! Good luck!
If the light in my RV already is going to a light switch that's on the wall would i not need to add a switch to the new light fixture?
What if the wire size that I'm connecting from the battery (12v distribution breaker panel) to the wires on the appliance are different sizes? Recommended wire is 16awg but the appliance wire is 22 awg. Should I connect via a cigarette lighter instead?
Do you need a fuse??
How do you keep the battery from
Dieing??
Thank you for this great video. What do you when the light fixture has an integrated LED light (meaning you cannot replace it with a 12-volt bulb)
The light fixture that I would like to install is 120 volt light. Your help is appreciated.
Hey thanks for watching. First instinct would say it can’t work. The purpose is to change the bulb to the 12v to work on 12v. Hope that helps. Would love to know if you can convert it!
Unscrew the entire LED fixture from the roof. Disconnect the black and white wire that come from the ceiling that are going into the keystone LED converter. The 2 wires coming from the ceiling are 120 volt.
You are not making it clear. On one hand you say you have a light fixture that has an integrated LED light....and then you say you have a fixture that you would like to install is for a 120 volt light. That seems to imply you are talking about 2 different fixtures and are replacing one with the other. If that is the case and you say you have a 120 volt light bulb and fixture what are you asking? Are you asking how to hook it up to a 120 VAC circuit? Or on a 12 VDC circuit. The short answer is that if the circuit is 120VAC you always use a bulb designed for 120Volts. And a 12 volt DC bulb for 12 volts.
If the video would have taken an extra 20 seconds to explain this....it would have helped. But when I tried to tell him he told me to get off his page. He doesn't handle criticism to well.
I Need help. I put some lights up today and when I go to unplug them or pull the string, you have to pull one light and the other light goes off. How can I fix this remedy and my life that I put up in
What is the BRIGHTEST bulb you can get with that screw in base?
Depends on each fixture, whatever the manufacturer determines is safe
hi guys need some help, i got portable 110v house heater,, wanna transfer this to my car because my Car heater dosent work, need help on HOW to transfer.thanks
Is it possible to install a dimmer switch for the wall switches?
Absolutely
Sorry, newbie here, but I want to make sure I understand this right. So, the switch itself is doing the conversion? And if that's the case, is it possible to hook up 120v light fixture without the switch, but use a 12v bulb? (It will be turned on by a light switch on the wall) Thanks for the help!
As long as it’s wired like it’s a 12v light by not using the ground wire it should work! We have done that on a few lights as well.
Thanks for posting your question mine is the same
I see he did not answer your question. No the switch is not doing the conversion. The bulb itself is a 12 volt bulb. No "conversion" is taking place. He is simply wiring a 12 volt circuit. The confusing thing is that the bulb looks like a standard E-26 screw in bulb that you would use in a 120 VAC socket...but it is not. It is 12 volts. So the act of buying that bulb is the "conversion". I tried to tell him that several people were confused but he told me to get off of his page.
The links for the bulbs show a controller wired into the system, can you successfully use these WITHOUT a controllers ?
The seller may have changed the links, not sure what controller you are speaking of
Would a pull string work the same as the switch you used?
Yes it would. Same concept
Will this work with a 120v led light fixture
I tried to tell him the points he needed to clearer on but he told me to get off his page.
How long will this battery last?
You need to put a fuse between the switch and the battery, as close to the battery as possible. Be safe guys
Yes there are fuses in the builds obviously, just for show and tell on how to hook up lights we were showing it.
Steady Streamin Cashios - just wanted to put it up in the comments for others to see who may not know this otherwise.
Thanks for the tip, appreciate it!
"This is a 12 volt bulb that has a standard screw in base. The end.
Buying that bulb.......That is the "conversion".
Adding a switch is not showing how to "convert".
An almost 7 minute video for 10 seconds of useful information.
Im just getting in to switching my RV lights to new 110v fixtures, adding switches and using 12v led bulbs. There is a fuse already existing in my camper yes? This comment have me pause because I want to keep me and my loved ones safe as possible! The original 12v fixtures had switches that I will probably just reuse. Thanks for any advice!
If its a 120v fixture with built in switch do i need to just do the 2 wires and cut off the ground?
Yes, pretty sure and use a 12v bulb. It has worked for me in other fixtures. I have had 1 fixture not work for me though. Good luck
@@SteadyStreaminCashios i did it last week and works great. Yes i knew to use 12v bulb regardless of the fixture. Thanks for the response
What connectors are on your 12 volt battery that you screwed your wire down on?
Thanks for your great video!!
I can’t remember, but more than likely just some battery terminals.
Can I convert electric miniature lamps to led, eg for dollhouse
I wouldn’t see why you couldn’t. As long as the bulb is swapped it should work.
Do you seriously think this guy is an electrician? In his comments he "struggles with understanding electrical"?
@@michaeljorgensen790 He is literally helping out a whole community who are not electricians but who want to be able to put lighting in their home on wheels. Stop spreading your negativity on a positive page! SO LAMEEEE
@@TES-hj4kz A surgeon would caution people not to follow the advice of a "do it yourself" surgeon....for obvious reasons. Likewise an Electrical Engineer would caution people not to follow the advice of a person who is just in the process of learning things himself and then posting them on CZcams. The reason for the caution should be obvious. It is about safety. There are about 400 people who accidentally electrocute themselves each year in the USA alone. That is 400 deaths. But if you think not hurting his feelings is more important than cautioning people from doing something they could die from then let me know and I will cease "spreading my negativity".
Is the switch necessary? Will it work without the switch?
It’s not necessary, in some of our vintage camper conversions a switch was needed because we could not access wires to mount a switch on the walls. Thanks for watching!
@@SteadyStreaminCashios so it's only needed to put a switch on a 110light if there's no interrupt on the wall with a switch it needs a switched hot somewhere to turn it on an off. Most of my rv lights go on this way the fixtures available suck are ugly and expensive. Im actually an electrician and didn't know about these bulbs
Thank u
So I don't see any difference in the fixtures? What makes it 12v already vs the other one that was 120 v
There’s no difference. It’s the same fixture, just the way they are wired with the switch and 12v bulb
@@SteadyStreaminCashios so basically I can take a 12v fixture and run it on 120v if I change out the bulb to a 120 bulb or I can take a 120v fixture and run it on 12v if I change the bulb. Would 12v wiring be able to handle that kind of load?
Just put in house switches they work on DC fixtures no need for the ugly toggle switches
TEE TEE ELL 4
Confused why you are calling a black wire positive and a white wire negative.
I came here to see 120V bulb lighting on 12V battery using some kind of converter, not how to wire an outlet...😔
Modern RVs, come with 12 v light fixtures only and only one 12-volt outlet usually.
I like having 12-volt accessories and appliances so that I don't have to depend on shore power or an expensive generator or expensive solar.
I heard someone talking about mounting surface-mount 12-volt outlets next to each 12 volt light fixture. That would give more places to plug in 12-volt accessories.
Some surface mount 12v outlets also have USB outlets for charging phones etc.
Maybe you should do a video showing people how to wire surface mount 12v outlets into their 12 v light fixtures.
Saying “obviously” a lot for us folks here who obviously don’t know much
Didn’t covert anything… just hooked it up positive and negative. 😂
It’s all about how people get brought to the video, it’s helped a lot of people. That’s all that matters. 😂
Okay I've wanting to convert my lights to 12 volts led light bulbs I've seen other videos on saving power by not converting 12 volts DC to 120 volts ac for anything that can be powered by 12 volts DC or less one video even converted all his lights to 12 volt DC unfortunately it looked bad as he ran surface wires to all the fixtures I am fortunate enough that all my lights are on one circuit looked on Amazon found the bulbs but there is no equivalent to 120 incandescent bulbs when I buy a pack of bulbs right on the packaging it says what it's equivalent to now I know know watts amps and volts but the formula doesn't work for LED versus incandescent so what watts 12 volt DC is equivalent to a 60watt 120 volts incandescent light and what's equivalent to a 100 watts don't want to spend money on bulbs ownly to find they don't produce enough light for my home converting is easy enough just disconnect one wire and hook it up to 12 volts and change all my bulbs to 12 volts I already converted all my bulbs to led before that I had converted to spriral florescent bulbs and found the lower wattage bulbs were great my kitchen was always dark as well as other rooms 60watt bulbs didn't give me enough light but I was restricted by my sockets 60watt watt max limit but by using a 13 watt spiral florescent it's equivalent to a 100 watts but didn't overload or overheat the fixtures some I could even go to 19 watts equivalent to a 150 watt incandescent bulbs and I want to do the same with 12 volt LED lights right now all my lights don't pull as much watts as 1 60watt incandescent light I want do the same thing with 12 volt LED bulbs our cpap machines are 12 volts DC all I need is a cord to plug them into 12 volt cigarette lighter plug I've already done my pump over just need the lights next I want to have power supply system 12 volts dc for the low voltage items and 120 volts ac for the rest since we only loose a few degrees overnight when the furnace is out I figure I can turn off the inverter overnight saving on standby power neither the fridge or freezer will gain too much heat overnight and should be OK for a ten hour long shut down but I need the equivalent 12 volts LED bulbs then when the inverter is off I've still got lights
Zookini noises come to plsy
"This is a 12 volt bulb that has a standard screw in base. The end.
Buying that bulb.......That is the "conversion".
Adding a switch is not showing how to "convert".
An almost 7 minute video for 10 seconds of useful information.
If you consider that there are visual learners out there that need/like to see the process so they aren’t doing it blindly you’d see the value in the video. We get weekly messages on IG and through emailing asking about lighting and how we do it. So instead of wasting our time typing up a lengthy explanation we can send a link to the video and help others. But thanks for being such a positive light in the world 🙃
And for contributing to our video algorithm by watching and commenting. You rock!
@@SteadyStreaminCashios Not to nit pick...but after reading the comments below where some people tried it and it failed....it seems the part were you said it was a 12 volt bulb got glossed over pretty quickly. And that is the most important part
of this "conversion".
@@michaeljorgensen790 LOL one person comments it doesn’t work for them and haven’t answered back if they used it right... yet so many others commented how it helped them so much. Please get a life and get off our page 🙃😊
@@SteadyStreaminCashios Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed my constructive criticism. And I will get off your page.....
On second thought....before I do..... I will go through this page and answer a bunch of questions since you seem to think only one person is having trouble. Then I will get off your page. You're welcome.
7 mins to tell us buy a 12V light bulb
😆
Can it be done same way for a cigarrete lighter plug
NICE VIDEO BUT NOT EVERYLIGHT WORK ON OK CANÈT WORK WITH PAT LIGHT LED LIGHT THOSE KIND OF LIGHT IT WORK ON
So you're not converting anything you just found a 12v bulb that fits in a standard house fixture.
Zookini
Lmfao! Doesn't answer 120v led lights to 12v the bulbs are not replaceable
Talk Talk Talk What a waste of time
Zookini noises come to play
Tried it and it failed. Is there any special LED light bulb that I'm not using?
are you using a 12V BULB?
I tried to tell him it is not a "conversion" video. It is simply buying a 12 volt bulb and wiring it to a 12 volt battery.
I told his so and he told me to get off his page.
As a Electrical Engineer I could tell you how to actually convert a 120VAC LED bulb to work off of 12 VDC....but I'm not going to do it on this page.
@@SteadyStreaminCashios I figured it out the next day. Sorry didn't get back to you here sooner. Yah I pulled my 12 volt light bulb out of my camper and tried that and it worked. This does not work with a home LED bulb. You need a real 12 Volt LED bulb
@@djmack73zach we made this video for others wanting to use lights like this in their RV. Glad you figured it out.
@@SteadyStreaminCashios this was a huge help for me. Thank you. I wish there was a way to take home 110 volt LED lights that you can get at places like Home Depot that you make run on a 12 volt system. Can't find anything