HOW TO: Convert Fluorescent RV Lights to LEDs
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- čas přidán 2. 03. 2013
- UPDATE! We're upgrading our LED conversion with high-end LED tubes. See how we did it here: • Converting RV Lights t...
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Watch the other videos in our LED Your RV series:
Part 1 - Incandescent & Halogen: • Converting RV Lights t...
Part 2 - LED Color & Brightness: • Converting RV Lights t...
Part 3 - 18" Fluorescent Tubes: • Converting RV Lights t...
Part 4 - 12" Fluorescent Tubes: • Converting RV Lights t...
Part 5 - Docking & Patio Lights: • Converting RV Lights t...
Part 6 - Security, Entry & Reading: • Converting RV Lights t...
Our complete playlist of LED conversion videos:
• LED Your RV!
Being frequent boondockers (for the uninitiated, that's camping without hook-ups), we're always looking for ways to conserve resources. Even though our RV came equipped with some fairly energy efficient fluorescent lighting, LED lights are the reigning champs of miserly power consumption, using about a third the power of a fluorescent. Today we show you how to convert a 12-volt fluorescent fixture into low-power LED lighting.
Before we start, please remember that electrical projects aren't for everyone. Even 12-volt power requires extra caution in this case, since the capacitor in a fluorescent light ballast stores energy even after the power has been disconnected. If you're not comfortable working with electricity, hire a professional!
There are LOTS of ways to convert RV lights from incandescent (halogen is most common) or fluorescent to LED. The simplest is for incandescent lights, where you can purchase a direct plug-in replacement for an existing bulb. You can also replace entire fixtures with LED equivalents. But since these solutions can be a lot more expensive, we prefer to look for other alternatives. LED strip lights are an inexpensive replacement for fluorescent tubes, and really versatile too, since they're designed to be cut to length. They just take a little extra effort.
LEDs are available in a range of colors from cool to warm, which are listed as "K" ratings, which refers to the color temperature in degrees Kelvin. We suggest skewing toward "warm" as very cool LED light is similar to very cool fluorescent light, in that it can make your RV seem like a laboratory. lol
The general range of color runs from about 6,000 to 7,000 K (very cold blue cast) to about 2,500 to 3,500 K, which is much warmer, with a yellow cast similar to an incandescent light. If you want something in between, 3,500 to 4,500 K has warmth, without being too yellow, although they can be hard to find.
It might take some trial and error to find exactly what you like best. We actually demonstrated this installation with lights that were too cool, so we ordered warmer lights to replace them. At only about $15 for a 5-meter (16.4 ft.) roll on Amazon, it was so inexpensive to try them out, we weren't too worried about it!
The piano music is my own performance of Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag from 1899.
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UPDATE! We're upgrading our LED conversion with high-end LED tubes. See how we did it here: czcams.com/video/B3JFLErfMxw/video.html Visit m4products.com and use Coupon Code RVGEEKS5 to get a 5% discount on the same great M4 LEDs we use in our own RV.
Hey guys, I am doing your strip LED conversion soon. I will be ordering lights soon (specifically for boondocking and campgrounds where we have to pay electric separately. My question is, we want maximum brightness. Were, those lights bright enough for you? We are on a pretty strict budget so M4's bulbs are out for us at this time . We have purchased all our other lights from them though (thanks for the discount code). Also, how did the adhesive on back of the lights hold up? did they stay stuck? Thanks in advance.
Hey Charlie! The strip lights are so inexpensive that we used FOUR strips in each fixture instead of two (two strips per bulb replaced) that we wanted extra brightness in. Works great. If you clean the fixture with alcohol before adhering the strips, they mostly stay where you put them long-term. A couple of ends curled down slightly over time, but we never noticed until we happened to take one of the covers off. A little double stick tape repaired that in a flash.
Thanks for the quick response. I am going to order them right now. We are wintering in Aransas Pass, Texas. I am a bit bored but not ready yet to party with the "Square Dance" set...lol, instead I will upgrade the coach. Is there a place where I can reach you via email? I have the same era Newmar Coach and have some questions that you might be able to answer? drzcharlie at google mail dot com
Hey Charlie. The best place for general questions is posting them as a public comment on the About Us page on our website. That way all threads are archived publicly to help out others with similar questions. www.thervgeeks.com/about-us/
One of the clearest & very helpful videos I have come across recently.
Thanks for your comment Roger, and best of luck in your RV upgrade.
YEAH!! So glad you noticed and thanks so much for mentioning it! I videotaped myself playing Maple Leaf Rag on my parent's Knabe baby grand piano years ago, and love having it start and end the RVgeeks videos.... kind of like my "signature" lol. Since it's my own performance of a Public Domain piece, there's no copyright issue, but CZcams gave me a hard time anyway. Not sure why no issue any more, but I hope it stays that way. Thanks again for the comment. You made my night! :)
No dimming and no problems so far. Everything seems great and we'll really happy with the light output and color. If you want more brightness, just install four strips instead of two (we did that over our kitchen sink for extra light).
Outstanding!! I'm going to do this ASAP. Thanks!!
Thanks! Hope you can use the info. Biggest thing is to get the right color (not too "cold" which looks very blue, and to make sure the connectors are the same width as the strip lights (8mm, 10mm, etc). Thanks for the comment about our rings too. They're braided tri-color gold (white, yellow & rose), custom-made about 15 years ago by a great jeweler in Provincetown, MA.
Great video, I plan to upgrade an old RV I purchased last year and this will help to reduce elec demand.
Thanks for your time
Roger
You can add as many strips as will fit (easily 2 or 3 on each side, for a total of 4 or 6). That way you can adjust the light level where you want it to be. We used four total (2 per side) in the bathroom, where we wanted extra light, and that made it a little bit brighter than the original 2 fluorescent tubes.
I really enjoy the concise, detailed and step by step approach you use on all your videos. Fantastic! Keep up the great work!
We got them from LED Wholesalers. The bare end connectors were about $1.50 each, but in retrospect, we'd recommend the ones that cost about $2.00 as probably having a more robust connection mechanism.
That was an excellent video. To the point, thorough, and informative... without a bunch of talk and nonsense. Thank you!
Thinking of trying this! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Wes. We got them from LED wholesalers(dot)com. The bare end connectors were about $1.50 each, but in retrospect, we'd recommend the ones that cost about $2.00 as probably having a more robust connection mechanism. Glad you like our videos! Thanks for the comment. :)
Thank you for the video. This looks like a great project for my kids and I to do one a weekend.
Great little no nonsense "how to " video. Thanks for taking the time to compose and upload
This is fantastic, just what I was looking for. Thank you. Cool wedding ring btw.
Literally brilliant light! And brilliant description of how to DIY. Thanks.
Thanks! :)
Nice! Very clear and helpful! Thanks for posting!
thanks for put this on video.excellent upgrade. 1/3less power plus it even looks brighter
+George rosado They are indeed brighter! :)
Great video! I have been wondering about something besides the fluorescent tubes in my 5th wheel. I get tired of replacing all of those bulbs. You make it seem very easy! Thanks!
Sure thing. I hope it works for you. Please let me know. Good luck!
I would say that the light is either about the same, or slightly dimmer than the fluoro tubes, but the nice thing about the LEDs is that you can easily add in more rows (4 strips instead of 2 for example) customizing the light level and still using less power.
That looks pretty easy. I have two regular single light fixtures already changed over to led. Next I would like je to change my two fluorescent fixtures to led. Your video will make it much easier to do. Thank you.
I think I should do this for my living room florescent light. it started working on and off and now I think a capacitor in the ballast has stopped working. probably could even remove my ballast completely and be extra safe! I really like your strip leads! never knew you could get those!
Sean Rudden Hi Sean. M4 sells the type of circular LEDs that I think you're referring to. They're 8" diameter and available in cool white or natural white (our personal choice): www.m4products.com/tube-lights/
Now the LED Tubes'' Are great as well......They will cost you 50 Dollars per fixture..........& a little wiring skill but RV Education has that covered.
Thanks so much for your videos, it is making my life a lot easier!
We had the ends of a few of the strips come loose from the light fixture after a while, so we picked up some 3M double stick tape at Home Depot. Worked great. But since you said that the adhesive backing actually came off the lights themselves, you must have gotten a bad batch. We've never had anything like that happen.
Thanks very much for creating this vid! I've Always believed that most instructional vids could be wrapped-up in 5 mins or less. Best regards.
Nicely done! Thanks for the info
a fantastic instructional video thank you
Have been missing your videos! Thanks for sharing!
Only the light strip itself came from Amazon. Type "LED strip lights 300 SMD 5050 warm white" in the Amazon search box. "300" stands for 300 LEDs per 5 meters (sometimes listed as 60/meter), and "SMD 5050" refers to the size of each LED, 5050 being the largest and brightest commonly available. LEDwholesalers(dotcom) was our source for the strip connectors and end caps. Make sure you confirm the width of the LED strip (8mm for example) and order the same width connectors and end caps.
Perfect, going to try that today
@Reashedul Hasan One of the prime benefits of LED bulbs is that they are very cool, so heat is not an issue.
Search "strip lights LED 300 SMD 5050 warm white" on Amazon (they just now came up sixth for us in our search). They're warm white in color, 5 meters (16.4 ft) with 60 LEDs per meter. They're currently listed for $12.98 + $4.49 shipping for the non-waterproof type (which are fine for this purpose). Not sure what the official output rating is vs. fluorescent, but they're so reasonably priced we simply added four strips instead of two in fixtures where we wanted more light. Hope this helps!
Great stuff. Those ballasts generate a lot of RF interference which effects my slide controllers and AM radio on my 2005 Newmar KSDP 3910. Going after this one big time.
Awesome job on the Florence light did not know how easy that was thanks lads
Ha I ment fluorescent duh lol
Damn auto-correct!
We set it to 20 on the "DCV" (DC volt) side.
Gorgeous and provider of money Thanks
Yeah! The intro music is back! So much better than the revving engine. I noticed it on your last video but didn't want to say anything in case I jinxed something.
Wow what great instructions
Thanks for the quick and detailed message.
Wow! Very helpful. Thanks
Our LEDs cover the exact same area and put out the same light as the fluorescents we replaced. If you're installing new fixtures, there are new LED fixtures available right out of the box, instead of doing a conversion like we did here. Sorry, but I don't know how many you'll need. You might want to buy what you think you'll need and add more if it's not enough. We're very happy with the light.
Super helpful, thank you!
I have ordered some high-temp, double-stick tape, and will see if I can salvage the leds. Keep your fingers crossed for me...
Im sorry I must have missed that part , that is very cheap considering how much there is on that roll , thankyou for your time and info.
Amazing.
Its a very awesome job.
In an RV, most (or all) of the lighting is 12-volt. If this were a regular house, it does indeed appear that we connected to 120!
Pretty sweet! Thanks :)
OMG - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! This is awesome!
There are places that sell it in shorter lengths, but as we mentioned in the video description, we found this long roll on Amazon for only $12.95! At that price, we figured that even if we didn't convert all of our lights, we'd find some use for it somewhere. lol
Hi, I love the video I am going to try this in my enclosed trailer. Can this conversion be done on a standard 110 shop light? thanks again
That was realy nice and helpful video
Thanks for your help
There are different LED bulbs for replacing incandescent (vs fluorescent) RV lights. We're planning a short video about that soon. Stay tuned!
Nice job, as usual. Thanks and keep em coming. :)
Really great.
Thanks.
Can you use a dimmer with these things?
Great video, Thanks for sharing.
good work thank you so much
Good One ............ Now you have got me thinking !!!!!
I bet you could get those in the color-changing kind too, which would be cool!👍🏼☮️
We got the strip lights on Amazon (click the link at the top of the video description to find them) and the connectors from LEDwholesalers(dot)com..... although I believe Amazon sells them too.
are they weatherproof? I want to add some to the outside of my popup camper.
Sure thing. Search "12 volt LED dimmer switch" on Amazon, and they have them for about 11 bucks, including a remote control. :) These are special dimmers just for LEDs.
THANKS FOR SHARING
Did you get the "warm white" color? Even so, the colors can vary a bit. Sorry it didn't work out for you.
We didn't actually. The remaining wires are outputs from the ballast that simply lead to the old fluorescent tube contacts. The two wires that we cut heading into the ballast were the power wires, which were then re-diected to the LEDs.
All the strip lights I've ever seen are 12-volt DC, so to convert a 110-volt fluorescent light to LED would require some kind of 100-to-12-volt converter.
Looks much brighter with LED
I am wondering what type of LED you used. I see there is a lot of choice giving output per length of string different watt ratings per string. I am impressed with the simple installation and will redo my RV with these strip lights once I find the rating of the string used..
awesome...!!!! love it!
That is correct. An LED is a diode and electronic component, therefore it will operate on a polarized circuit of direct current. The conversion from ac to dc however is not difficult and not expensive. So, you may want to do the rectifier ac to dc then use the power saving led's.
I'm wondering if a dimmer control could be mounted at the switch or up on the light assembly? Are there 12v dimmer switches?
Thanks for the great video ! Did you obtain all parts on Amazon?
The light strips with the silicone coating are designed to be waterproof.
I came up with this idea 2 years ago, I stripped the fixture completely, because I never intend to go back to fluorescents. The LED light is so much better/healthier, same for the incandescence, it gives true color and not a yellow effect.
Do your home work and read up on LED technical specifications( color factor K ) I recommend 5000 to 5500k which is pure white. Anything higher is a blue.
I've converted all the 12 volt lights in our motor home to LEDs and will never go back.
Sorry, just realized that you're looking for 110-volt and the ones I mentioned are 12-volt. Not sure what to do for 110, except to see what's available ion Google.
Landrew0 There is a special type of dimmer for LEDs, but we have never used one. Check this out from M4: www.m4products.com/dimmer-n-hard-wired-led-dimmer-control-module/
I've ordered the led lights and connectors on Amazon using the links without a problem. But when I searched for the end caps I wasn't sure which size to get: the 8mm or 10mm. I'm guessing 8mm but wasn't 100% sure. Thanks for the easy to follow video!
You want everything to match... 8mm lights, connectors and end caps, or 10mm everything. If you already ordered the lights and connectors and they're already on the way, you might want to until you receive them, then measure them to be sure.
What fixtures do you recommend when buying premade fixtures. I am lighting a 26 foot enclosed trailer for Antique Snowmobile Racing, Currently use 3 exposed twin tube 8' 100 watt H.O. 110v fixtures open bulb no difuser. Showroom amount of light. Need the same as my eyes are getting older like the sleds. Thanks.
I just viewed both of your videos about converting RV Florescent lights to LED. I liked the strip light idea due to the cost because I would like to do all of my lights, 7 fixtures with 2 bulbs each 18". My question is why did you choose to go the more expensive way in the end we the strips not working or not bright enough. Please advise
Hi Steve! We've had some minor issues with the strip lights, with the connections coming loose enough that one strip didn't light, and then we have to tighten it up again. Not a big deal, but the M4 lights are so elegant, provide more light with nicer color, and we've never had a moment of trouble with any of them. We figured that since we're only converting them once, we could manage the cost of them. We do get it that with so many fixtures on some RVs, it can add up, so price can indeed be a consideration.
What do you set your voltmeter at to get any accurate reading?
Very off topic ~ but that wedding band is a wonderful design !
Thank you so much! It’s a custom-made weave of white, yellow, and rose gold, and it will be 25 years old pretty soon!
Howdy, where did you order the bare end connectors and end caps? Also, I love your videos! I sanitized the fresh water tank in my new (to me) RV when I got it a month ago using the instructions from your other video.
Thanks Wes
Hi, What about the heat issue. how come it can be minimize.
LED's as small as these won't emit enough heat for that to be an issue. LED theatre lanterns never get hotter than 30°C.
How many strips can you hook up? Is it as bright as the fluorescent?
I am looking at putting some over head lights in my enclosed motorcycle trailer. Would you recommend LED lights vs. Florescent lights. Florescent lights seem to work well at filling in light everywhere. Will I get that same effect? How many LED lights would I need for a 14' trailer.
Search "strip lights LED 300 SMD 5050 warm white" on Amazon and they should come pretty close to the top of the search. Sold through Amazon by "ebestrade" and currently listed for $14.96 + $4.99 shipping (we got ours a couple of weeks ago for $12.95, so they've obviously gone up a little). Funny thing... they don't say they're eligible for free super saver shipping, but we chose EXPEDITED shipping, and they shipped for FREE! Don't know if they've caught that yet, but maybe you'll get lucky too.
You can replace the fluor tubes by LED light tubes, no electrical rewiring. It cost you about $25 per light, last for 20 years.
I could not get the links to work in the video. Can you provide the links to the LED lights and connectors. Thanks
Why do you leave the ballast circuit powered up? Why not remove it completely since it still uses power?
...and thanks for the quick reply!
Can I do the se thing with the little spot reading lights?
Another advantage to doing this type of conversion is weight reduction if you do all the fluorescent fixtures and remove all the ballast. 10+ ballasts have some weight to them. I would recommend removing them while you are doing this install.
Yea good point. if each ballast weighs a pound, that's 10 lbs of weight reduction But if you add an extra two gallons of water, that's 12 lbs so weight reduction is negated...LOL
Can you comment on the light output. Does it seem comparable to the amount of light from the fluorescents, or more or less?
Did you find the LED tube lights were better lighting than the strip lights for your RV. Just curious which gave you better lighting. Thanks you. Enjoy your videos
+Anna B. Absolutely. They're brighter, no issues with the adhesive loosening and very elegant design (for those of us who appreciate that). Also, easier to install. Of course they're more expensive, but we liked them so much we did tube lights throughout the coach after that first one.