UPDATE! We're upgrading our LED conversion with high-end LED tubes. See how we did it here: ruclips.net/video/B3JFLErfMxw/видео.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/
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).
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.
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 RUclips 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! :)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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 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!
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.
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.
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. :)
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.
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..
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hey Airstream... the difference just has to do with the size of the light strip. You want to match the connectors to be sure that they will be compatible. The wider the strip, the farther apart the contact points are, so if you don't have them close, they might not work.
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.
hi friend i believe u can get more efficiency with cree led than smd strip led,smd led are same lumens per watt as fluorecent about 60lm/watt and cree led got 100lm/watt.
Hi guys, I finally got our roll of LED's still waiting on the connectors and silicone caps but should be here by the weekend. I have a couple of questions though. I know you snipped the wires from the ballast. Does this eliminate it from the circuit? I am guessing that snipping the wires does that. Also, I was poking around on iRV2 this morning and mentioned I was about to do this project. Someone recommended that I not forget the voltage regulators? Why would we need any?
Hi Charlie! Yes indeed on the ballast. Once the wires are cut, it's just a paper weight, not connected to, or doing, anything. Technically speaking, you could add a voltage regulator to protect them from the higher voltage they see when batteries are on high charge. But we never did that, and have had the original strip lights in place for about 5 years now without a single failure. We figure that the strips are so inexpensive (if they should need to be replaced), and have lasted so long, that it's not worth the cost or effort to bother with a regulator.
P.S... the "reason" for the regulators is to ensure the LEDs don't see higher than 12V. While LEDs are often listed with an acceptable voltage range (like 10-30V DC), they actually only use 12V. Anything above that just generates extra heat... and that heat will cause the LEDs to fail sooner. Again... in 5 years of using ours, we haven't had to replace a single one, yet and they seem to be doing just fine.
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
I am wondering how you got the adhesive backing to not come loose...I followed your instructions to the letter - ordered what you said, etc - and the strips came loose from the heat within minutes, and cannot be made to stick. Very disappointed and perplexed (4 strips came unglued immediately; 2 strips took about a half hour) I even cleaned the surface of the fixture with alcohol, dried it well, and still wouldn't stay adhered...
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.
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.
Question. Could you wire those strips directly to your 110v house wiring or was the RV pushing 12v to the original fluorescent bulbs? I'm a bit new to this and I wanna do the same thing to the lighting in my bedroom.
Unclear: The 2 strips account for 4 wires, 2 each strip. In a two fluorescent bulb fixture, there will be 2 led strips and 4 wires (2 wires per strip). These 4 are twisted into 2 (1 twisted hot line, 1 twisted ground line) and then those twisted/connected leads connect to the power?
LEDS failing. We bought some JOYLIT from Amazon. emitters are individually failing over a 2 week period. I am guessing they do not like the heat in the fixture.
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.
UPDATE! We're upgrading our LED conversion with high-end LED tubes. See how we did it here: ruclips.net/video/B3JFLErfMxw/видео.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.
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).
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.
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 RUclips 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! :)
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.
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!
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 for your comment Roger, and best of luck in your RV upgrade.
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
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.
I really enjoy the concise, detailed and step by step approach you use on all your videos. Fantastic! Keep up the great work!
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.
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.
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!
I have ordered some high-temp, double-stick tape, and will see if I can salvage the leds. Keep your fingers crossed for me...
Awesome job on the Florence light did not know how easy that was thanks lads
Ha I ment fluorescent duh lol
Damn auto-correct!
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.
Great little no nonsense "how to " video. Thanks for taking the time to compose and upload
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.
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.
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.
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 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!
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.
Outstanding!! I'm going to do this ASAP. Thanks!!
Literally brilliant light! And brilliant description of how to DIY. Thanks.
Thanks! :)
Sure thing. I hope it works for you. Please let me know. Good luck!
thanks for put this on video.excellent upgrade. 1/3less power plus it even looks brighter
+George rosado They are indeed brighter! :)
Thank you for the video. This looks like a great project for my kids and I to do one a weekend.
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.
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. :)
This is fantastic, just what I was looking for. Thank you. Cool wedding ring btw.
I bet you could get those in the color-changing kind too, which would be cool!👍🏼☮️
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.
Did you get the "warm white" color? Even so, the colors can vary a bit. Sorry it didn't work out for you.
@Reashedul Hasan One of the prime benefits of LED bulbs is that they are very cool, so heat is not an issue.
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..
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.
Looks much brighter with LED
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.
Thinking of trying this! Thanks for sharing!
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
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!
The light strips with the silicone coating are designed to be waterproof.
You can replace the fluor tubes by LED light tubes, no electrical rewiring. It cost you about $25 per light, last for 20 years.
Thanks for the quick and detailed message.
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
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.
We set it to 20 on the "DCV" (DC volt) side.
Nice! Very clear and helpful! Thanks for posting!
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!
Wow what great instructions
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.
Super helpful, thank you!
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.
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.
Thanks so much for your videos, it is making my life a lot easier!
are they weatherproof? I want to add some to the outside of my popup camper.
Have been missing your videos! Thanks for sharing!
Gorgeous and provider of money Thanks
Good One ............ Now you have got me thinking !!!!!
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.
Can you show how to remove the lens cover of the florescent fixture slowly? Ours seem to be kind of brittle and I don't want to break them.
OMG - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! This is awesome!
great video Im about to order Burt one question what the advantage on 8mm ,10mm is more light ?
Hey Airstream... the difference just has to do with the size of the light strip. You want to match the connectors to be sure that they will be compatible. The wider the strip, the farther apart the contact points are, so if you don't have them close, they might not work.
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.
hi friend i believe u can get more efficiency with cree led than smd strip led,smd led are same lumens per watt as fluorecent about 60lm/watt and cree led got 100lm/watt.
We get all our LEDs from M4 now. Look for a new video, along with a new RVgeeks Giveaway, this week!
Hi guys, I finally got our roll of LED's still waiting on the connectors and silicone caps but should be here by the weekend. I have a couple of questions though. I know you snipped the wires from the ballast. Does this eliminate it from the circuit? I am guessing that snipping the wires does that. Also, I was poking around on iRV2 this morning and mentioned I was about to do this project. Someone recommended that I not forget the voltage regulators? Why would we need any?
Hi Charlie! Yes indeed on the ballast. Once the wires are cut, it's just a paper weight, not connected to, or doing, anything. Technically speaking, you could add a voltage regulator to protect them from the higher voltage they see when batteries are on high charge. But we never did that, and have had the original strip lights in place for about 5 years now without a single failure. We figure that the strips are so inexpensive (if they should need to be replaced), and have lasted so long, that it's not worth the cost or effort to bother with a regulator.
P.S... the "reason" for the regulators is to ensure the LEDs don't see higher than 12V. While LEDs are often listed with an acceptable voltage range (like 10-30V DC), they actually only use 12V. Anything above that just generates extra heat... and that heat will cause the LEDs to fail sooner. Again... in 5 years of using ours, we haven't had to replace a single one, yet and they seem to be doing just fine.
Can you comment on the light output. Does it seem comparable to the amount of light from the fluorescents, or more or less?
Its a very awesome job.
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
Perfect, going to try that today
a fantastic instructional video thank you
The led is 12 volt. Did you just connect it to 120? Sorry if I missed something.
The adhesive backing actually delaminated from the portion with the electronics.
Nicely done! Thanks for the info
I am wondering how you got the adhesive backing to not come loose...I followed your instructions to the letter - ordered what you said, etc - and the strips came loose from the heat within minutes, and cannot be made to stick. Very disappointed and perplexed (4 strips came unglued immediately; 2 strips took about a half hour) I even cleaned the surface of the fixture with alcohol, dried it well, and still wouldn't stay adhered...
Thanks for the great video ! Did you obtain all parts on Amazon?
Why do you leave the ballast circuit powered up? Why not remove it completely since it still uses power?
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.
Pretty sweet! Thanks :)
is the strip lighting expensive? and can you get less than a roll?, which would be far too much for me?
Amazing.
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.
Question. Could you wire those strips directly to your 110v house wiring or was the RV pushing 12v to the original fluorescent bulbs? I'm a bit new to this and I wanna do the same thing to the lighting in my bedroom.
The strips we used are 12-volt only, so you'd need a converter.
RVgeeks *powersupply
do you mean the voltage supply of the led is directly to the power source 220V AC as i shown in your demo?
+League Minecraft The power source for these is 12-volts DC (and an RV also uses 110, not 220 volts power).
Unclear:
The 2 strips account for 4 wires, 2 each strip. In a two fluorescent bulb fixture, there will be 2 led strips and 4 wires (2 wires per strip). These 4 are twisted into 2 (1 twisted hot line, 1 twisted ground line) and then those twisted/connected leads connect to the power?
Yes, you have it right.
That was realy nice and helpful video
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
Thanks for your help
LEDS failing. We bought some JOYLIT from Amazon. emitters are individually failing over a 2 week period. I am guessing they do not like the heat in the fixture.
How many strips can you hook up? Is it as bright as the fluorescent?
Great video, Thanks for sharing.
...and thanks for the quick reply!
I'm wondering if a dimmer control could be mounted at the switch or up on the light assembly? Are there 12v dimmer switches?
Really great.
Thanks.
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.
Hello again. Trust your referrals to the max so I come to ask, anywhere you recommend for cam locks for the basement storage depts.? Thanks!
We've never needed to replace ours, but try camping world, an RV dealer or repair shop, or PPL Motorhomes onine.