DENBOY Posted August 21, 2008 Posted August 21, 2008 Hi folks, just thought I would share an experiment I am doing. I was looking to change all of the light fittings in my van to leds but found the cost too high, so I looked on ebay and found 27000 mcd leds for £3.99 for 20. I took the 8 watt strip light from over the kitchen dismantled it and installed 16 of these leds inside the case/defuser wired in sets of 4 in series and then the 4 sets in parralel, no resisters were used as the leds are rated at roughly 3 volts each. using this series/parralel setup I can add as many leds as I like 4 at a time. the leds are very directional but the defuser and pointing them in different directions helps. The light output is about the same but very white. I know its a bit heath robinson but I have had this unit on test in the garage for days and without problems, there is no heat and the unit is pulling 1.2 watts. Any comments regards possible probems I have not thought of will be welcome. dennis
colin Posted August 21, 2008 Posted August 21, 2008 I'm no expert on LED lighting, but with a lot of vans using halogen which uses a fair bit of power I've had half an eye on them. Your figure of 1.2watt for 16LEDs seems very low, in fact I didn't think LEDS where much more energy efficient than the 8w fluresent that you have replaced, have you measured how much power you old light is actualy using by the same method? A little aside, this may have been posted before, gf has brought 3 off 3LED stick on batery lights powered by 3 AAA, just about right for illuminating a dark cupboard if you get fed up of searching for a torch, cost £2.99.
DENBOY Posted August 21, 2008 Author Posted August 21, 2008 Hi, there are plug in units for sale that have 19 leds that quote 1.6 watts so I don't think I'm too far out but I will check. this a temp lash up to see if it works out side the van. the only draw back I can see is the missus dosn't like the light to apply her war paint. dennis
colin Posted August 21, 2008 Posted August 21, 2008 Well it certainly gives 'food for thought' I've got a couple of 4w flouresent fittings in barn which components replacing, might consider fixing them up with LEDS.
hallii Posted August 21, 2008 Posted August 21, 2008 I might do the same as you, but I would think about some sort of voltage control, maybe a simple zener diode and resistor to limit any over voltage and smooth spikes a bit. LEDs seem to pop quite easily if maximium parameters are exceeded. Geoff
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