Converting the Flourescents to LED

[RickL]

White LED lighting temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin.

Cool white leds have a bluish hue to them and are often considered too harsh for a lot of lighting applications. Cool white leds have a color temperature of 5000K to 7000K. Note that most inexpensive florescent bulbs are in this color temperature range.

Natural White leds are a bit less cold and are a more balanced white; these seem to work well for overhead lights and are best where color accuracy is important. Natural White leds have a temperature range of 4000K to around 45000K.

Warm white leds look a bit yellowish and produce a light more closely related to the incandescent bulb in terms of color temperature; these LEDs have a temperature range of 3000K to 3500K.

I've bought a number of led products from SuperBrightLeds and have found that the natural white looks good for general illumination and that the warm white is better for reading and work spaces e.g. counter tops and desks. I agree that the cool white leds are too blue and harsh, but I don't like most florescent bulbs either .

HTH

Rick L

[LenS]

I know they save power but does anyone have the numbers??

[WVvan]

OK, since you asked. This is from my own LED project.

I have the smaller fluorescent fixture.


My power source is two fully charged 6 volt batteries connected in series.


The fixture draws 1.2 amps.


Run the light for 1 minute off the batteries. Battery voltage starts at 12.91 volts.


After one minute the voltage has dropped to 12.85 volts. So it's using 0.06 volts/minute. The voltage drop was so regular it was like watching a clock.


By contrast the first, but not last, version of my LED replacement produced nearly the same amount of light, drew 0.45 amps and the batteries only dropped 0.01 volt when running for 1 minute.



Full write up when I get to it.

[scatter]

Originally Posted by LenS

I know they save power but does anyone have the numbers??

As I mentioned, the LEDs that I installed use around 0.46 amps. My florescents were sucking a little over 2 amps if I remember correctly. Whether or not it's worth doing for the power savings really depends on how much you use your lights and the amount of battery storage you have. We do a fair amount of winter camping and therefore use lights a lot this time of year. The plus for us also is that we like the color much better. The florescents were just a bit too cool white for us. At least that's one of the reasons I used to justify the project.

[jage]

I just like being able to flip the lights on without justification. I used to go around trying to keep only one of the florescents on, and then only when necessary. Now I just don't worry about it. On when they're needed, off when it's too bright.

On a side note, a few days ago I left my Jeep door open all afternoon, all night, and some of the next day. It was super bitter cold, not good for batteries or starting anyway, however since it was the first vehicle to get a LED dome light years ago there was no noticeable difference in starting. Cheap insurance if you leave a light on when hiking all day, or whatever.

[patrick51]

I also converted the rear reading lights and map and front readng lights. I don't have the technical numbers but can say they really stand up to battery usage, and use little amps, I love em. I went w/ the bright white, and still want to do the flourescents as they are power suckers. Pat

[Gooseberry]

I have been looking for a white single filiment led and have only found red or amber with the whites being a dual. What is the manufacture and part number

Originally Posted by patrick51

I also converted the rear reading lights and map and front readng lights. I don't have the technical numbers but can say they really stand up to battery usage, and use little amps, I love em. I went w/ the bright white, and still want to do the flourescents as they are power suckers. Pat

[Ford_6L_E350]

How about:

http://www.ledtronics.com/products/cat3.aspx?P=C101D484

Or:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... -turn.html

I got mine from the 2nd source. 1156 are singles, 1157 are duals.

Mike

[Gooseberry]

Orvac elect in orange county had these and allot of leds. I picked up these and two to try out in one of the florecence fixtures but they needed a driver to get to white and not just red.

Originally Posted by Gooseberry

I have been looking for a white single filiment led and have only found red or amber with the whites being a dual. What is the manufacture and part number

[Viejo]

I'm part way through with converting my incandescent and fluorescent lights to LED. Thanks for the great posts on the subject from Scatter, Jage, John & Dana and others for getting me started.

The incandescent spot lights and festoon lamps were pretty easy with drop in replacements.
, and

Things get more exciting with the fluorescents. Thanks Jage, for giving me the courage to gut my fixture.



Having just converted the festoon lamps so easily I thought that would be a good way to go with the fluorescents.



I also added a second switch on the other end of the fixture. It's a 4 position switch, the kind used to control a 3-way incandescent bulb. I put in 6 festoon holders and wired 3 of them to the original switch. The other 3 are connected to the new switch which powers 1, 2 or all 3. In various combinations of switch settings, I can light 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 panels at once.

I originally intended to use the 6 element drop-in replacement festoon bulbs, but then I realized that the flat panel fixtures delivered 150 lumens with a 115mA current draw vs. the 60 lumen 163mA draw on the festoon bulbs. More than twice the light at 2/3 the current draw for only $2 more. Couldn't pass up a deal like that.



So I got the flat panels and festoon adapters. I added little mini cell foam pad feet for mounting. I only used mini cell because that's what I stumbled across first in the garage while looking for a solution.

The festoon adapters are a good idea, poorly executed. They are poorly made, flimsy and the connectors don't mate properly with the connectors on the panels. On my next fluorescent conversion, I'll probably just wire everything up directly; skipping the festoon holders and adapters but I will add the second switch to give me a 'dim-able' fixture.



Here's the fixture installed with 1 panel lit and with all 6.