L.E.D. changeover.

[biggirafe]

I got the 21LED from the same source.They fitted ok,beware they a polarity sensative and marked up + and -. I just got 2 to try and to be honest they are only about the same as 8/10 w halogen.I shall stay with fluorescents untill
they get brighter and cheaper.If you go the LED route you need a lot of them.

We have replaced all the spots and overhead lights which were all normal lightbulbs with led's but we intend to leave the flourecent tubes as is.

We found using 19 led's in the spots works great very bright as a directional light in fact better than the bulbs that were in the spots previously, but they are not so good in the overhead lights as the light is focused down and does not fill the van. In our van we have 4 flourecent tubes on the sides and we found that using these in conjunction with the leds overhead lights works great and still uses less than the old lightbulbs.

We think LED's are a bit of a compromise for lighting large areas but if you want to stay off of a hookup longer its worth it not to have to worrry about how many lights you have turned on all the time

 

[rickboy]

Course of least resistance.

You can get 3LED push on/off lights that take 3aaa batteries @ 2 for a £1
in the 99p/£1 shops. Having faffed around with the "proper" ones I think these are a good bet, the batteries last ages and its ohhhhh so easy.
Rick

 

[biggirafe]

You can get 3LED push on/off lights that take 3aaa batteries @ 2 for a £1
in the 99p/£1 shops. Having faffed around with the "proper" ones I think these are a good bet, the batteries last ages and its ohhhhh so easy.
Rick

These work great in cupboards and in the lockers.

 

[bigboack]

LED's

I got these from Fleabay, they have been on in the garage on a Alarm battery 12v for the past 24 hrs, They light the garage up in total darkness so will be trying them in Big Bertha, They seem to be ok and thats without a regulator.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=220493681938&view=all&tid=511435750012

 

[Kontiki]

These are the bulbs I got, the one showing the back also shows a needle I am going to try to solder in place of the pins. The needle (0.76mm) is just slightly bigger than the pins (0.70mm) of the normal halogen bulb & will fit in the holder. These bulbs do seem to spread the light reasonably well, I think it will always be difficult to get them as good as the ordinary bulb as you can't make use of the reflector behind the bulb with the LED ones.

I have messed about with the cheap push lights that you can pick up from poundland but they are useless for lighting the van but are ok for lockers & small areas.


BTW the link for the eBay item doesn't work, possibly it's the link from when your logged on, what you need to do is put the eBay item number.
Ed

 

[bigboack]

Ebay Iten number is 220493681938 type this in ebay and see what you think, BTW the lights are still on in thr garage, 3 days now continuous. Cant fault them really.

Try this link hope it works.http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....8+%09&_sacat=See-All-Categories&_fvi=1&_rdc=1

 

[biggirafe]

Ebay Iten number is 220493681938 type this in ebay and see what you think, BTW the lights are still on in thr garage, 3 days now continuous. Cant fault them really.

Try this link hope it works.2X 24 LED Linear Flexible Strip Car Light 12V white on eBay (end time 10-Nov-09 21:03:24 GMT)

I thought about using these to replace our Tubes but decided the gain was not worth the effort. They look good though, would work well in the kitchen area maybe.

Maybe we should all fit long blue ones under our vans, would this give us some street cred?

 

[zeezee16]

I thought about using these to replace our Tubes but decided the gain was not worth the effort. They look good though, would work well in the kitchen area maybe.

Maybe we should all fit long blue ones under our vans, would this give us some street cred?

I got some of these, I put them on the outside of the van, wired them up to a remote so you can switch them on when you are on your way back from the pub.
Cheers, Pete

 

[Deleted member 967]

Well I started the LED changeover today.

Changed the lights in our bathroom and the reading light my wife uses. Put the bulbs in the holder nothing happened put old bulb back everything OK. Then it dawned, LEDs are polarity sensitive the old bulbs are not. Tested LEDs on the battery they worked OK but in doing so proved theory of the polarity.

With my van being wired with two wires throughout and not relying on a body earth return everything had been working with normal bulbs. Changed the wires over and we had lift off.

Next job is to change the vehicle running lights for LEDs.

 

[Deleted member 967]

Well I was happy with the lighting in the bathroom after changing the bulbs to LEDs.

However I had a duff fluorescent unit that I had replaced over the sink. I bought two of the LED Strip-lights from Camper Care LIGHTING .:. LAMP UNITS The units are halfway down the right hand column.

I gutted the old unit and glued the two lamps into the old fitting (they are the same size an a conventional 8 watt tube) removing the plug in section from the end of each unit and connecting them together with a chocolate block. They work fine but "The Senior Management" is not happy with the results. She prefers the harsh light of the single 8 watt flourescent tube to the warm light of the twin LED strips. In her opinion it was an expensive exercise and although it may save power in use, she would rather have the brighter light over the kitchen. We have agreed to give it a try. We are off to Birmingham tomorrow until Friday so we should be able to gauge the light in action better on that trip.

I was thinking of doing the rest of the fluorescent lights but the lack if brightness from the two LED strips have put me off. I was hoping that the new light over the sink would be brighter, but it isn't so replacing the 13 wattt fluorescent tubes would make the van much darker.

The four bulbs, 1156 SINGLE CONTACT BULB, that I put in the bathroom are brighter than the 10 watt original bulbs but not as good as the 21 watt in the reading lamp. She however prefers the less bright lamp for reading in bed,

I also bought some bleeping LED bulbs and intend to fit these in the reversing lamp. The one led on those seem much brighter than the warm yellow square LEDs on the 1156 bulb with 13 LEDs.

I thought that side lamps all had to be 5 Watt and Stop lights/Fog Lamps 21Watt These LED lights seem to be an in between. I wonder if they comply with the vehicle lighting regulations?

 

[biggirafe]

Well I was happy with the lighting in the bathroom after changing the bulbs to LEDs.

However I had a duff fluorescent unit that I had replaced over the sink. I bought two of the LED Strip-lights from Camper Care LIGHTING .:. LAMP UNITS The units are halfway down the right hand column.

I gutted the old unit and glued the two lamps into the old fitting (they are the same size an a conventional 8 watt tube) removing the plug in section from the end of each unit and connecting them together with a chocolate block. They work fine but "The Senior Management" is not happy with the results. She prefers the harsh light of the single 8 watt flourescent tube to the warm light of the twin LED strips. In her opinion it was an expensive exercise and although it may save power in use, she would rather have the brighter light over the kitchen. We have agreed to give it a try. We are off to Birmingham tomorrow until Friday so we should be able to gauge the light in action better on that trip.

I was thinking of doing the rest of the fluorescent lights but the lack if brightness from the two LED strips have put me off. I was hoping that the new light over the sink would be brighter, but it isn't so replacing the 13 wattt fluorescent tubes would make the van much darker.

The four bulbs, 1156 SINGLE CONTACT BULB, that I put in the bathroom are brighter than the 10 watt original bulbs but not as good as the 21 watt in the reading lamp. She however prefers the less bright lamp for reading in bed,

I also bought some bleeping LED bulbs and intend to fit these in the reversing lamp. The one led on those seem much brighter than the warm yellow square LEDs on the 1156 bulb with 13 LEDs.

I thought that side lamps all had to be 5 Watt and Stop lights/Fog Lamps 21Watt These LED lights seem to be an in between. I wonder if they comply with the vehicle lighting regulations?

yeah we came to the same conclusion, we have left the current tubes in place and only replaced spots and bulbs.

 

[Kontiki]

Managed to solder some smaller wire to the the LED bulbs I have & they work ok. Both the lights I put them in had the polarity the wrong way but there was a screw block type connector that was easy enough to get to. They aren't quite as bright as the halogen but not by much. I sent for a couple of the 9 LED 90 lumen ones @ £4 each, these should be ok as they are half as bright again.

 

[Kontiki]

Update

Received the replacement bulbs the dealer from Hong Kong promised to send with the smaller pin size so now had 4 bulbs for the price of 2. Found the original bulbs must be the white as the new ones he sent were warm white. We will fit the white ones over the kitchen (I managed to solder some smaller pins on but don't know if they will last) & the warm white ones in the living area. Still waiting for the brighter 90 lumen ones to come, date for delivery I was given was 25/12 to 5/1 so hope they come for next week.
Some of the holders are easy to get out as up to now most have been wired the wrong way for the LED's. I had to remove the metal plate above the kitchen as it is impossible to get the front off the light in situ. Some of the spotlights are proving difficult to remove (if anybody has any tips for how to get them out I'd appreciate it).

Looking at the way the LED bulbs can fit, the pins seem close to the metal reflector so I will have to see about some insulation just in case as I don't fancy taking the chance of them shorting out.