General internal campervan lights

[carderv]

hi all
stripped out the old tube lights and made these up...
great job and easy on the battery too

 

[BGD]

That's a LOT of Leds.....it's going to be very bright; maybe too bright!

 

[carderv]

sorry for the late reply
it is a lot of leds but got them hooked up to a remote dimmer from china
a great wee bit of kit

 

[Peter James]

Did you compare power consumption with the previous set up?
I compared LEDs with a flourescent tube of similar light output by using the ammeter function in a pocket multimeter and found negligible difference in power consumption. But my LED strips don't look the same as those

 

[BGD]

Peter - then you need to recheck, or chuck that duff tester away.

Per lumen of light emitted, an LED uses MUCH less energy than fluorescence.

And that's ignoring the massive spike in draw required to "fire-up" the fluorescent tube when first switched on.

 

[corcai]

Per lumen of light emitted, an LED uses MUCH less energy than fluorescence.

Not in consumer land unless you have very expensive leds vs a very poor tube and ballast.

Most of those strip leds are 60 lumens per watt and rubbish colour rendering.

I just replaced a t5 tube with a philips one with 82CRI and 108 lumens per watt. The latest 2016 philips master led t8 is 105 lumens /watt.

Leds win on longevity in theory although I've seen plenty of premature failures even with premium branded bulbs.

 

[Peter James]

Peter - then you need to recheck, or chuck that duff tester away.

Its only a cheap pocket ammeter. But if it over or under reads it shouldn't make any significant difference when comparing the LED and fluorescent strip showing almost equal current draw - they would both be up or down.
There is no doubt that replacing filament bulbs with fluorescent or LED saves a lot of power.
But whether its worth replacing fluorescent strips with LED is much less clear

 

[Peter James]

Not in consumer land unless you have very expensive leds vs a very poor tube and ballast.

Most of those strip leds are 60 lumens per watt and rubbish colour rendering.

I just replaced a t5 tube with a philips one with 82CRI and 108 lumens per watt. The latest 2016 philips master led t8 is 105 lumens /watt.

Leds win on longevity in theory although I've seen plenty of premature failures even with premium branded bulbs.

A very well informed post, Thanks. I got some cheap LED strips from China, a few LEDs on the strips soon failed but I continue using them since I am not a perfectionist and don't mind the gaps. So overall I prefer the LEDs. But if I had a motorhome with flourescents neatly fitted as O/E I wouldn't think it worth ripping them out to fit LEDs