Adding a new 12v LED Light

[bitler1@gmail.com]

Hi Everyone,

I want to add a 12v LED strip light to the interior of my Westy. I think that an LED uses significantly less juice?

Presumably I can wire it directly to the leisure battery? What wire do I need?

Does anyone have any links to a decent/suitable LED light?

I want to put one near the roof so that it can be shone up into the pop top at bedtime.

Any other ideas/thoughts welcome.

Cheers,

Phil

[Sensible_Steve]

Go to your local camping/caravan shop and they should be able to advise you.

Be aware that these lights are significantly more expensive than the 'normal' counterparts and the light produced is often a lot whiter/harsh. Some people prefer the warmer like produced by a bulb.

Cheers

Steve h

[billybigspud]

the draw on led,s is nothing. buy it and you will see how small the cable is on it. fuse it down to 3 amps and get the cable suitable for that ( not sure of automotive sizes ) just in case you want to loop any more off of it.

jamie

[CovKid]

What many have done (me included) is fit deck lights (go look in B&Q). You can group them or have lights all over the shop - often they'll have an offer on of say 10 lights for £30. They run on 12v and come with a 240v>12v transformer that will be surplus.

[kevtherev]

12v LED strip lights are available from Ikea

[nevill3]

I decided to become totally flexible I installed the little round downlighters and wired half direct to my 12v lighting circuit and half to their transformer, now we can use either system but the overall look is uniform. I aso added a "string" of the single LED deck lights around the living area to provide mood lighting for when you are just chilling out and don't actually need to be reading or cooking etc.

[ghost123uk]

Be aware that these lights are significantly more expensive than the 'normal' counterparts and the light produced is often a lot whiter/harsh. Some people prefer the warmer like produced by a bulb.

Check out these ( http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/18-WARM-WHITE-WIR ... 2c539f4305" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )"warm white" 301mm strip of LED's they give of a nice "warm white" light and can be wired straight into 12V and cost £8 all in.

I replaced the "inerds" of my original florescent strip light with one of these strips (fastened in place with simple double sided foam sticky tape) and the result is great, brighter than the 2 tubes that were fitted and a nicer light with VERY low current consumption.

[nevill3]

Here's a couple more photos of how the LED's look when lit


All the lights on (Including some spots that use the old style bayonet car bulbs


Just the LED's

[Hacksawbob]

I got a couple of magnet backed AA battery powered LED jobs. I recovered some super strong magnets from a hard drive and hot glue gunned them behind the panels in the high top. so I can just stick the lights up there when I need them there but I can pull them off and use them elsewhere if needed, heaps of light output and easiest install and can run if camping battery is running out. Also good for engine working. Downside not as flush and pretty looking, but as magnets are hidden you wont know about them if the lights aren't there.
This kind of thing
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/72-LED-MAGNETIC-T ... 35b273cb94" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[dansimpson]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWNX:IT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

£1.25 delivered, forget all the expensive ready made lights, take out all the crap inside a standard 12v strip light, wire it directly to the switch, use 2 if you want really bright light, 165ma each as oppose to 8 watt tubes at over 660ma.

Previous post has lots of info on other led upgrades:
https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... 9&start=30" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bitler1@gmail.com]

Sorry for the delayed response.... Thanks to everyone for all of the advice... I'll let you know how I get on!

[pfield69]

Just to add a bit more,

I bought some LED strips from ebay. I have waterproof red strips on sliding doors and tail gate (as I keep hitting my head). These are 1m each.

I have also got some not yet fixed to the inside of the roof, these are warm white and blue. Both 2m long. These pull 1.2 amps for the whole 4m.

I used speaker wire (0.75mmsq) and a 1amp fuse (running hot ). The red strips are run of the existing door switches with some modification to allow them to be turned on with out the door lights. All my ineternal lights are now LEDs (2 front door feston lights, 1 sliding door feston and 3 footwell lights). On this circuit I down graded the fuse to 3A.

All the strips had reverse polarity protection and still work on a flat (10v) battery.

My problem is how to hide the wires in the roof.

Pete

[bitler1@gmail.com]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. The ones on ebay look fine to me.

A few more questions from a bit of a novice 12v sparky....

Can I wire them direct to the leisure battery?

If so, what size wire do I need to carry the load and do I need to put a fuse into the circuit (presumably in series)?

Phil

[kevtherev]

Can I wire them direct to the leisure battery?

yes

do I need to put a fuse into the circuit (presumably in series)?

yes

If so, what size wire do I need to carry the load

depends on the rating... but I doubt if it will be above 1.2mm

[pfield69]

You need to know how much they will pull in amps.

Try this online calculator to estimate the cable size.
http://www.solar-wind.co.uk/cable-sizing-DC-cables.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I would always fuse them before the switch (in series). half mine are from 2nd battery (my old BMW 140ah) the others of the main battery.

Depending what type, you maybe able to connect them together in series but paralell is best (all positives together, all negatives together).