12 Volt Led Lighting fixtures

Using LED’s as a light source is a no brainer! LED’s boast 40-50x’s the burn time, 1/10th the ability use and small to no heat emissions. Despite all these benefits LED’s can price up to 30x’s more per light bulb. Over time LED’s pay money for themselves although preliminary investment is significant with respect to the space you ought to light.

LED OPTIONS

There are numerous choices when it comes to installing LED’s to your RV: LED accessories & light taverns and light bulbs. The Land Yacht had 6 current light accessories that use 18 small incandescent bulbs. We wished to use these current accessories so we began considering LED light bulbs which are made for these 12v sockets. We rapidly found that these 12v LED light bulbs aren't inexpensive! At virtually $19 per bulb it could cost us over $340 to convert all our lights to LED. (Compare this to .60 per incandescent light bulb!)

So we began trying to find different, less expensive, Light-emitting Diode choices…

I experienced heard nutrients about LED lights from ebay. And also at a portion of the price I made a decision to offer them a try. While less costly (around $5 per bulb) their particular brightness and shade are not perfect in addition they usually do not have any warranty. After the light diffuser is put in the ebay Light-emitting Diode tend to be pretty dim additionally the color is a very good blue and I also much favor a warmer hue.

I’ve seen some affordable 12v RV light bulbs on AMAZON with good reviews. At .95 for 2 its similar to my ebay buy but look to be a warmer hue and higher quality. While looking for 12v bulbs be sure to know what type of socket you may need as there's a number of choices online. The easiest way getting LED’s into your area is probably adding Light-emitting Diode bulbs to your existing fixtures.

At a trip to IKEA I found these under-the-counter LED lights called DIODER. The kit included 4 small Light-emitting Diode accessories (9 LED’s per fixtures), installing hardware, line and switch. Just like most devices the DIODER had a transformer that converts the AC existing to DC. Since vacation trailers are made to run-on 12v this meant I could hack from the transformer and wire the Light-emitting Diode lights into the trailers 12v system.

All of the truck lights run-on 12v DC energy – whilst attached to AC coast power. The AC power goes to a power converter that changes the AC existing to DC to perform lights, water pump and keep a charge in your electric battery. Since we intend to be mostly off-grid without AC energy hookups keeping every little thing on a 12v system makes the many feeling.

HACKING THE IKEA LED’s

Installing the LED’s is pretty easy. Select the location you would like them put in (we setup all of them under our cabinets), cut off the AC transformer then wire all of them into the trailer 12v energy.

AC or DC POWER?

Our trailer had 12v energy lines cost all the various areas of the truck we wanted to put in the lights. (These 12v energy outlines were feeding various other lights, range vent lover in addition to heater thermostat.) In our trailer a few of the 12v energy outlines tend to be white cable and others are black. It was slightly confusing because all of the AC energy outlines are white. Therefore I utilized a power meter to evaluate the lines to verify these were 12v DC. For our trailer black ended up being positive and white was negative.

If you’re not sure perhaps the cable you might be coping with is AC or DC focus on the AC environment on your own meter…if the reading is a decimal and leaps around after that you’re most likely dealing with DC energy. You ought to get a reading of between 12-13.5v DC.

LOCATING THE GOOD LINE

From the real lights you need to figure out which line is good and that will be negative. (Note: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! DO NOT use experimenting to obtain the positive and negative…this WILL fry your LED!) The IKEA DIODER wire has writing in the positive line. If you would like make sure this it is possible to take apart the transformer as well as on the output side of the circuit board it'll say 12v+ & GND. Follow 12v+ cable into the junction package you'll be able to see which line is positive that plugs into the field. On all my lights positive had been the cable with writing onto it.

MOUNTING

It is possible to either install the lights with an adhesive pad or screws (both included). The Light-emitting Diode angle counter clockwise from the gold installing brackets. To install with screws drill a hole for your wire, screw down the silver installing bracket then twist in Light-emitting Diode.

WIRING

For an easy, temporary solution, you can use the switch that accompany the light system. Hack off both stops and strip the wire. Making use of line nuts connect the negative and positive to a single end for the switch. Make use of your energy meter to verify the +/- wires once you turn the turn on. (These wires should be in-line therefore the exact same on the other side end of the switch.) Once you've determined the +/- edges link the matching wires from lights.

Sooner or later I will install 12v switches completely recessed underneath each closet. I am going to also solder as well as heat shrink all of the cable joints for a more permanent set up.

SUMMARY

The IKEA LED’s give us area specific bright cozy light that just makes use of 5w per 4 accessories and value a fraction of various other LED options at $7.50 per light. (in the place of $19 per light) These small accessories are superb accent lighting and a cheap option to get 12v LED into the RV!