Converting Standard 12v lights to LED

[mcspin50]

Can you take a standard 12v porch light like this:



and re-wire it with LED lights?

Wait...let me re-word that....can **I** take a standard porch light and rewire it to LED? My electrical experience is changing the plug on a lamp.

Any tips and hints as to how I can do it? Thanks in advance for your help.

I really like the remote system that absolutsnwbrdr/Zach used on his teardrop and want to incorporate that into the porch and galley lights on the Lily Pad.

[Nathan N]

Lil,

Unless I'm missing something you could just change the bulb out for one of these:

http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/rv-l ... -bulbs.htm

I ordered (don't recall if same outfit) a led bulb like one of the top ones and it fit into a similar fixture.

Nathan

[Ageless]

If .you can solder; no need to spend $20. You can buy prewired 12V LEDs for about 14 cents each.

[Shadow Catcher]

Absolutely you can. I had fixtures that had wedge bases, no problem and I used amber arrays (bug).

[mcspin50]

Thanks all for your responses guys. I'm a little less muddled on it.

Nathan, I was hoping to find a less expensive way to convert. It's tempting tho, since the solution is so simple. I keep looking for fixtures that are already LED but can't seem to find them in my price range...as in "cheep!"

Ageless, I did get LED lights like these (the same ones Zach used in a way cool method on the outside of his Scuttlebutt:
http://www.creativelightings.com/Waterproof-LED-Modules-LED-Pucks-s/1056.htm
Can I convert the ol' porch light to one of these? I'll go get a soldering iron and practice.

Shadow Catcher, I love your confidence in my abilities. Looked at your conversion pic in your album, and it doesn't look TOO hard.

The lights I got said they had to be wired in parallel. Can someone explain what that means?

Thanks for your patience as I ask so many dumb questions.

[Ageless]

Wired in parallel: connect all positive leads together, all ground leads together. BTW LEDs will only operate with correct polarity unlike incandescants

[bdosborn]

I changed all my lights to LED:

http://home.comcast.net/~bdosborn/Boxca ... rsion.html

Bruce

[cracker39]

Personally, I think it's way too expensive two use LED interior light fixtures. The standard bulb single and dual bulb fixtures worked just fine in the Squidget.

Bruce, is there a difference in LEDs re voltage? Could the LEDs in a small flashlight that use three 1.5V batteries be used with 12 volts, or would it blow out the LEDs? At $2 each, the flashlight's 9-LED head could be used in a cheap home-made reading light to mount on the wall at the head of the bed.

[bdosborn]

Personally, I think it's way too expensive two use LED interior light fixtures.

We found that there's one light we use all the time. Rather than convert all your lights, you might pick one light to convert to LED. Batteries are expensive too and the LED light will reduce your amp draw by 5-10 times. Besides, they're not that expensive anymore. Here's one that's only about $10 more than an incadescent model.

http://www.ledtrailerlights.com/rv/RV-led.htm

Bruce

[S. Heisley]

Using Bruce's (bdosborn) supplied website, I found this LED bulb that replaces the bulb in your existing porch light fixture without having to rewire!

http://www.ledtrailerlights.com/rv/RV-1141.htm

I state the above based on my Gustafson porch light, which uses bulb #1003 and looks identical to the one in your picture. While they cost a lot more than a traditional incandescent bulb, they are supposed last 10 years or more.

[Shadow Catcher]

In MM #1 I used arrays from ebay at 2.99 including shipping from China and with adapters for a number of sockets they were dirt cheep and worked fine
http://cgi.ebay.com/BA9S-T10-Festoon-Do ... 27b592d0f1