Hi Mike, glad to hear you are well organised regarding electrical hook up with LED lighting over bedhead for reading. The split from the ceiling light connection is an easy one with the in line switch to control light on/off. Some fellow caravan
Hi
@Boots in Action,
I can recommend dealing with edoled2012. Found out that their office is in Dandenong, just down the road from me and I can order from them and pick the items up. Nice and convenient for future purchases. So thanks for the tip.
The LED striplight is installed across the whole bedhead, 1200mm and the wiring is hidden behind the bed head. It looks really neat.
The 1200mm strip draws only 400mA which is also good.
Still waiting to get some inline switches. In the meantime I will run them from a split from the socket for the ceiling lights.
Thanks for passing on all the information for this great idea.
cheers
Mike
ers had a look at our setup last week whilst we were away in the Connondale ranges. Although they had had their van for nearly 4 years, they had not seen LED strip lighting used like that before. Another convert to a simple solution to bed lighting. Thanks also to DROVER again for his advice on in line switches. Instead of drilling holes in van for switches, I used white velcro to hide wiring and also to attach switch to side wall above bed. Just in case it needed servicing or had to be changed. Good luck with your trip to NW Victoria. Safe vanning!!
Don't go overboard with your 12V lighting... Yeah it's great to light things up, but it attracts lots of bugs.... When we free camp we usually have more light shining on the side of the car to keep the bugs away from us and the minimal needed for us to do what we need to do.
LED lighting tends to attract more bugs as well because of the blue tinge to the light.....Evolutionary thingamejig I suppose....fire tends to be more orange....heat from the fire tends to make ones wings fall off and body sizzle (when your a bug).
Other thing I have noticed is the el-cheapo LED strip lights tend to go yellow (the plastic they're housed in) and look pretty shoddy after a while...probably because of the lack of U.V. stabilizers?
If you can get the stats for the temperature of the LED lights that you buy it is a great way of seeing the quality. if you can stay below 5000K the light is more natural/yellow, but the lower temperature lights can be quiet a bit more expensive for the same lumen output. That's why cheap LED spotlights tend to have a blue haze. All LED's are not the same...
Hello Dean, you bring up an interesting point about LED lighting and the light they put out. Firstly there are 3 generally recognized colour outputs for LED lighting: Warm White (highest temperature colour and closest to incandescent lighting) is rated as 2700 to 3000 K, Cool White is somewhere between 3500 and 4100 K, and Daylight (closest light equivalent to midday sun on clear day) is rated at 5000 to 6500 K. There is actually NO DIFFERENCE in light output, it is just that our eyes tend to SEE more of the higher Kelvin rating, hence the change in headlight bulbs away from the incandescent colour of ordinary car bulbs (tungsten/ halogen coils 2700 to 3000 K) to the cooler temperature perceived by the eye to higher Kelvin ratings of above 4100 K. The Kelvin rating for the LEDs that I have, and Mikerezny has purchased are rated at 6500 to 7000 K and are still called "Cool White", so something is not correct there. Anything above Daylight rating of 6500 K is supposed to be the equivalent of sun brightness on an overcast day! Go figure that one!!
I have to agree that bright lights do attract the bugs, but I counter them with mossie coils. I would rather have bright light to see what I am eating (not the bugs) than the dimmer (perceived?) Warm White colour. Personal taste only, and we do mainly bush camping too!! The colour of fire is closest to Warm White and the bugs are usually kept away from fires because of the smoky haze and/or heat produced.
I have had my LED strip lighting in my van for nearly two years now and no sign of yellowing in the plastic housing, maybe because they are not subjected to UV rays from the sun, which may cause a problem in exterior situations. Drover would be able to confirm that. Have a look at my shots on the thread of my LEDs lit up. The LEDs are certainly not yellow, and are much better than the Warm White for reading etc, although not as cosy or romantic!! In fact, the Warm White LEDs are cheaper than the Cool White, and as you said, you may need more of these to SEE the same as Cool/Daylight type.
You are quite correct in saying that all LEDs are not the same. You should normally select the Kelvin range for the appropriate task required. Maybe I am getting too old, but give me a higher Kelvin rating for all my tasks, especially for vision at night on the road!!
Light up my day and night!!!
