LED light upgrade

alwaysared

alwaysared

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I'm in the process of replacing all of the interior light bulbs in my Hymer with LEDs and luckily all of them are the G4 type so that was easy 😀 The problem I'm having is the flourescent tube in the light above the sink and cooker, it currently has Sylvnia FHE21W/T5/830 tube in it and I just can't find an LED to replace it 😞 I'm not even sure what voltage it is because a Google search brings up lots of shops selling this particular tube and most don't give the voltage, one said 240v and another said 126 volt and Amazon says 123 volt 😧 So has anyone on here replaced this tube with an LED or do I just need get a cuttable strip and wire it to 12 volts? As usual any help is appreciated.

Regards,
Del
 
If 12v then simple to remove all the guts and tube then replace with one of these inside old unit or by itself,just cut the clips of and resolder to neg and pos switch,couple of bucks from ebay and i have soft and pure white in stock.
 

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martinmartin said:
As far as I know the fluorescent tube is not a specific voltage.
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I believe that to be correct. The gear in the fitting suits the supply voltage, so we have fluorescent lamps with the same tubes in the house on 240v ac and 12v dc in an outbuilding.
Measure the supply volts to your lamp, if it is 12v do a conversion as Trev suggests.
 
trevskoda said:
If 12v then simple to remove all the guts and tube then replace with one of these inside old unit or by itself,just cut the clips of and resolder to neg and pos switch,couple of bucks from ebay and i have soft and pure white in stock.
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That's what I did in the old Dethleffs but this one 850mm long and I was hoping to just get a LED equivalant then just put it in this time.

Regards,
Del
 
In the galley of my Hobby, I had an Osram 530mm fluorescent tube that is shown on the Internet as operating on 230V; there was a converter wired in that did not indicate to what it converted and that I could not find using a Google search on various references printed on it. I removed the tube and converter and replaced with https://online-leds.com/led-bulbs-3...brightness-12v-led-tube-500mm-cool-white.html wired directly to the 12v supply.
I was fortunate, in that this length appears to be quite common. If you can't get away with a 500mm and don't want to go for two tubes (other suppliers on eBay also do in the order of 300mm for example https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5X-20-30...7e:m:mvhQARJ8eDdwMX6OrDD_8gA&var=502907070322) you might consider strips such as https://online-leds.com/led-strip-lights-76/plug-play-led-strip-light-kits-high-brightness.html, particularly if you have any use for the rest of the strip.
 
A 21w T5 is mains.
You shouldn't need to do any testing just turn it on with no mains supply!
You can get mains led 'tube lights' - try toolstation. But if mains you could leave it until you need a new tube as consumption isn't an issue on ehu.
If 12v then replace it with new as ssuggested.
 
Markd said:
A 21w T5 is mains.
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I do not understand why you say the 21w T5 is mains. Are you suggesting it is mains only?

In our house the tube in the lamp below our wall cupboards is a TL-D 18W/830, 59cm long and the circuit watts are 22W. It is a T8 so 1” diameter (8*1/8”) although I don’t think that has significant electrical effect. Light output is 1350 lumens

I also have 3 mains AC/ DC battery powered lamps each fitted with two of those same tubes as above our kitchen worktop. They work perfectly well on both the mains, if I have a long enough extension cable to hand, and the integral batteries. I used these extensively for surveys of subterranean tunnels with no power supplies. I needed three as one was in use, the second a back up in case the first failed and the third on charge. And a good torch in my pocket just in case!

When both tubes were on they were taking 44 watts per hour so more than the T5 you mention. IIRC they didn’t quite manage an hour before they started to fade but I could get a few more minutes by switching to one tube instead of both.

The lamps in outbuildings I mentioned were similar to these, 12V 16W 2D Light:
www.atenlighting.co.uk

21 LED Square Switched Ceiling Light

Our 21 LED Square Light provides a great light in caravans, motorhomes and boats. The LED circuitry is voltage regulated from 10-30V so operates on either 12V or 24V systems and includes a voltage suppressor and fuse in the control circuitry to ensure a long lasting light. A rocker switch is...
www.atenlighting.co.uk www.atenlighting.co.uk

We also have the same 2D lights in ceiling lamps in the house but a bit better looking.
 
That's good to hear.
Let's see what the OP finds when he checks it.
In the meantime I'll amend my view to probably
Either way he has options to change it to LED if he wants.
21w T5 produces c1900 lumen which might be quite hard to match in the same length?
 
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I bought an led complete replacement tube from LEDbulbs4u that fitted straight into my kitchen light fitting. It was around £12 a few years back so not cheap but much easier for me at the time than trying to cobble something together.
 
Minisorella said:
I bought an led complete replacement tube from LEDbulbs4u that fitted straight into my kitchen light fitting. It was around £12 a few years back so not cheap but much easier for me at the time than trying to cobble something together.
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Yes i have them in garage at home,but we are talking van here so no such thing,the tubes i posted are easy to do and i have sorted a few vans with no probs direct 12v no inverters to wase power.
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trevskoda said:
Yes i have them in garage at home,but we are talking van here so no such thing,the tubes i posted are easy to do and i have sorted a few vans with no probs direct 12v no inverters to wase power.
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I meant in my van Trev... it's this...
www.ledbulbs4u.co.uk

12 VOLT 12" REPLACEMENT TUBE HYMER, BURSTNER, GERMAN (Copy) - Led Bulbs 4 U

REPLACEMENT FLUORESCENT TUBE 12 VOLT, DAY WHITE HYMER, BURSTNER, GEIST, NEISMANN BISHOFF ( HYMER GROUP ) THIS 12 VOLT LED TUBE IS DESIGNED TO REPLACE YOUR EXISTING 12VOLT 12" FLUORESCENT WITH THAT OF OUR SUPA BRIGHT SMD LED VERSION. A CONVENTIONAL 12" FLUORESCENT BULB USES 11 WATTS OF...
www.ledbulbs4u.co.uk
 
At that price i would do the conversion,anyway why keep all the power gubins,plus you can have soft or pure white or a mix at 2 bucks a go.
 
alwaysared said:
I'm in the process of replacing all of the interior light bulbs in my Hymer with LEDs ..... I'm not even sure what voltage it is , one said 240v and another said 126 volt and Amazon says 123 volt 😧 So has anyone on here replaced this tube with an LED or do I just need get a cuttable strip and wire it to 12 volts? As usual any help is appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hi Del, don't worry about the old tube voltage, the gear inside the fitting is the part that requires a set voltage which will in a camper normally be either nominally 12V (sometimes up to 24V) for running off the vehicle DC battery(ies) or nominally 230V AC if for use when plugged into the mains via the EHU. Just to slightly muddy the water some/most electrical control units, Zig and the like, will also provide a 12V DC supply from the EHU mains.

All that matters is whether you have 12V DC or 230V AC mains coming down the wire that feeds your existing striplight.
There may be information printed on the old unit that will tell you whether it was made to run on DC or AC but it is always possible that a lamp might have been modified by a previous owner to suit the way they used the van.
What voltage were the bulbs you have already replaced? If 12V then maybe more likely to be 12V at the striplight BUT NEVER take that for granted as mains voltage can kill or injure.

In the absence of any information the easiest next step is to just measure what is at the incoming wire supplying your striplight. Any inexpensive digital multimeter will do this job. I see they start at less than £5 on ebay but buying one locally for a bit more will allow you to judge the quality for yourself and whether you would be happy working with it.

Once you know what volts are there you can look for a suitable replacement.

I did have a quick look for a LED replacement of your length but found only 200mm to 600mm then a jump to 1200mm and longer. You might have more luck searching.

If your supply is 12V I would just do as you mentioned: strip out the existing guts and use as many lengths of those LEDs cut from a tape reel as suits your needs.
 
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