There are various overhead lights inside my 85 Regal, i.e., attached to the bottom of all four overhead cabinets, one in the main living area ceiling. They all have two bulbs in them that get very hot. I would like to convert to fluorescent but want to use the original fixtures. Anyone done this before?

The lights on our Barth and on the Boat were both 12 volt.

The wiring on my 1973 Barth is 16 gage multi-strand wire. The wire will handle the load of the Incandescent bulbs so with the draw of fluorescent fixtures being less life is good.

Having said this, on the boat we installed some fluorescent fixtures a few years back, they were costly, about $30.00 a whack as I recall. You know RV and boat cost stuff, required to run on 12 volts.

May I suggest you look at LED fixtures. The price is not so high as it was and the light is very nice, the fluorescent light makes us look strange. Lana does not care for them when doing her makeup. The LEDs use way less than an amp and I do mean way less.

Here is another approach. On the boat we have started using mostly 110v lighting. With the inverter we are able to use 110 household fluorescent lights and they pull less than an amp, besides they are less costly then the boat and RV 12 volt stuff. The inverter is a modified square wave inverter (read a low cost one) and after three fixtures the price differance between the household and RV stuff paid for the inverter.

If you have the same wire as I do, 16 gage multi-strand, you can use the same wires for 110 volts. The only caveat is that the wires on my Barth are pulled without conduit. A 110 short to our Aluminum structures might prove to be really electrifying, so as with all things a check as you go approach is suggested.


Good luck:

Tim and Lana

We got an led light that plugs right into the socket for the old 1141 incandescent light but Tere didn't like the kind of light. Is there an led that gives off something other than blueish/white light?

quote:

Originally posted by Jim and Tere:
We got an led light that plugs right into the socket for the old 1141 incandescent light but Tere didn't like the kind of light. Is there an led that gives off something other than blueish/white light?

Yes.

The most common LED is what is called cool white, which has a bluish cast. Some sellers are now selling what they call warm white, which is closer to incandescent color balance. I have mixed a few cool white LEDs with a red one to get a decent color.

My last purchase was a couple linear array of SMT LEDs in warm white. Pretty nice. Gonna put one over the door to come on with the door open switch to illuminate the inside and outside steps. We are thinking of cutting up another to replace the fluorescent tubes in a couple of the lights on the underside of the overhead. Susan is more prone to candle light for general illumination, though, and uses a halogen for reading, so I don't know what the acceptance factor will be on that. I also don't know how much the lens in the fixture will cut down on its light.

I prefer the SMT LEDs because of their wide beam angle. I use a G4 array of 10 SMT LEDs from www.superbrightleds.com in a home made bulb adapter as a reading light





and another as our patio light. These were bought before warm white was available, so Susan gets to complain about my reading light. The patio light was a bit bluish, but an amber lens mitigated that somewhat. It looks amber to look at, but the light it throws is pretty decent.

We are going Barthing again this weekend, and I may try the strips here and there as reading and counter lights.