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Old 10-28-2016, 05:52 PM   #1
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LED Replacement for fluorescent tubes

Hope this hasn't been done to death already.....
Has someone found a good, economical, direct LED replacement for fluorescent fixtures? Yes I know that one can buy an "LED tube" that is a direct replacement for the standard tubes in the fixtures. My first objection to these is simply the expense. The things are crazy high priced, and I count about thirty of them in our coach. Worse, unless I'm mistaken, this means that the nominal 12 volt DC that comes to the fixture is being inverted to AC, transformed to the high voltage required for the original fluorescent tubes (the "ballast") then presumably transformed back down to some reasonable "low" voltage and rectified back to DC which the LEDs have to have by the electronics built into the LED replacement tubes. All of this electronic wizardry seems absurd when at least some LED arrays will work quite happily straight off of the 12 volts that you have to start with! Also, there HAS to be some energy waste in all of this, which is counter to everything you're trying to accomplish.
I tried a quick and dirty substitution in one of our fixtures in which the ballast had failed and I had little to lose. I bought a set of LED "driving lights" at walmart, and wired it direct, using the fixtures switch, and just laying the light inside the plastic lens cover. It works OK, but I had hoped that I would be able to use each of the two driving lights for one light fixture. The reality is that it would take at least three of these lights to get about the same light that the two tubes were making, so a lot of the economy is gone. The light sets cost about what one of the LED tubes sell for at the RV dealers. I've shopped a bit online and found some sites selling long rolls of flat LED tape strips that claim reasonable lumen per foot values, but it's hard to tell for sure what voltage the things run at as they want to sell you a power supply to go with it. Also, as you have to buy a long roll, the cost is a bit daunting just to see if it might work, though if it did, it would be pretty reasonable, assuming the lumen figures I've found for the strips and for the old fluorescent tubes are accurate. Sorry about rambling on quite so much. Has anyone else gotten adventurous with any of this and found a good solution?
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Old 10-28-2016, 06:20 PM   #2
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I just bought some 18" led tubes @ $16.23 each. I also looked for cheap substitutes but finally just ordered the tubes. Just remove the ballast and direct wire these in. I ordered L15t8's...
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Old 10-28-2016, 06:41 PM   #3
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I bought the M4 LED tubes, natural light, installed in three fixtures. Instructions are clear and the process was painless. The first fixture took 40 min, but I got faster. Good light, immediate light. I would recommend M4. http://www.m4products.com/




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Old 10-28-2016, 06:43 PM   #4
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I thought that the LED tubes the RV places are selling were supposed to just pop into the bulb holders in the standard fixtures without alteration of the fixture the same as a standard fluorescent tube.
Are you saying that you are wiring them direct to 12V, and that this is what the directions tell you to do?
If so....WOW!!! I'm going to have to look closer at the things. Also, how happy are you with the light you're getting? As bright as before? How about "color temperature"? Where did you get them? Last ones I noticed were over $25 bucks a pop!
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Old 10-28-2016, 06:57 PM   #5
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In our previous Dutch Star I replaced all the fluorescent tube's with the strip LED's. Had to remove the fixture, disassemble it, remove the Thinlight transformer and rewire them. Found that four strips worked the best. Got the rolls of LED'S from Amazon. Late wife never even noticed the change.
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Old 10-28-2016, 07:03 PM   #6
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Here's a link to a Google search of iRV2 posts with the terms "fluorescent" and "LED" in them.

Here's a link to one of my posts on the topic. By my observation, Option 1 (LED strips) remains the most popular option for those who want to spend less to convert.
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Old 10-28-2016, 07:29 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr_D View Post
In our previous Dutch Star I replaced all the fluorescent tube's with the strip LED's. Had to remove the fixture, disassemble it, remove the Thinlight transformer and rewire them. Found that four strips worked the best. Got the rolls of LED'S from Amazon. Late wife never even noticed the change.
I did the exact same thing as Mr. D. I used only two strips for my application. If you are going to leave the ballasts in and just buy the bulbs you are not taking advantage of the most efficient way of producing light. There is a transformer in the ballast which changes 12v to a much higher voltage only to have the bulb reduce the higher voltage back down to 12v to power the LEDs. Doesn't make much economic sense. You will save much more energy by discarding the ballast. I agree with Mr. D and I purchased the strips from Amazon as well. Here is the link.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here is the other thing. Your fluorescent lights are burning tons of energy. I took a temp reader that you use in air conditioner companies and found that the fluorescent lights were producing 114 degrees of temp while the LEDs I put in were only producing 81 degrees. This was done in the same coach on the same day. The inside temp was 74 degrees. The only thing you need to worry about is the plus and minus voltage and how to use a soldering iron. The strips were 16.5 feet for almost $9.00. You will need about 2 strips near 14 inches to do one light. This does two things. It takes the heat out of the lights and the coach and reduces the battery drain when of the cord.
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Old 10-28-2016, 09:24 PM   #8
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A very large THANK YOU to all above! Definitely some eye opening stuff. I'm pretty sure the ones I've seen on offer were the direct replacement, leave the ballast in, approach which just seems daft, overpriced, and somewhat pointless to me. The ones that cut out the ballast but still use the mounts and imitate the tube are pretty nifty and clean looking, though they still seem a little pricey.
I would love to hear more from some folks who have used the long rolls of flat strip. I know how to wire things, and am fairly handy with a soldering gun, so it seems like an economical approach when one starts to talk about doing ALL of them. We have a total of 30 of the 18" tubes, and I'd love to get rid of all of them, for all the reasons discussed above.
Can you cut the strips to a usable length without affecting the required voltage for the resulting section? Do you HAVE to use special connectors? If not, just how tuff is it to get hold of/solder onto the cut ends?
Again thanks to all,
Jon
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Old 10-28-2016, 10:34 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by ROADOG View Post
A very large THANK YOU to all above! Definitely some eye opening stuff. I'm pretty sure the ones I've seen on offer were the direct replacement, leave the ballast in, approach which just seems daft, overpriced, and somewhat pointless to me. The ones that cut out the ballast but still use the mounts and imitate the tube are pretty nifty and clean looking, though they still seem a little pricey.
I would love to hear more from some folks who have used the long rolls of flat strip. I know how to wire things, and am fairly handy with a soldering gun, so it seems like an economical approach when one starts to talk about doing ALL of them. We have a total of 30 of the 18" tubes, and I'd love to get rid of all of them, for all the reasons discussed above.
Can you cut the strips to a usable length without affecting the required voltage for the resulting section? Do you HAVE to use special connectors? If not, just how tuff is it to get hold of/solder onto the cut ends?
Again thanks to all,
Jon
Yes, you can cut them into sections as small as 3 inches. No you don't need special connectors but they are available. I purchased them to make the install easier. And the LEDs are in parallel so you can put as few or as many as you want as long as the wire will carry the voltage. The fluorescents draw far more than a complete roll of LEDs.
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Old 10-29-2016, 08:55 AM   #10
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I upgraded my fixtures this summer. Here's a link to my project:

Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club • View topic - LED upgrade

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Old 10-29-2016, 11:37 AM   #11
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I'm in the process of reworking all our florescent lights, ripping out the ballasts and putting in LED strips. Those I've done already look great! I'll be posting about the change when I'm finished?
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Old 10-29-2016, 08:35 PM   #12
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. . .ALL our bulbs are LED's as we boondock. . .M4 has STUNNING service, available help, good website & you can TALK to the owner if problems exist. . . I had an oddball fixture I call him on about the wiring & he said it was complex if not electrically minded; sent it to him per his request & shipped back done at NO CHARGE. . .Cannot beat the service if that is what you want after the sale!!!!!. . .
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Old 10-30-2016, 10:07 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ROADOG View Post
I would love to hear more from some folks who have used the long rolls of flat strip. I know how to wire things, and am fairly handy with a soldering gun, so it seems like an economical approach when one starts to talk about doing ALL of them. We have a total of 30 of the 18" tubes, and I'd love to get rid of all of them, for all the reasons discussed above.
Can you cut the strips to a usable length without affecting the required voltage for the resulting section? Do you HAVE to use special connectors? If not, just how tuff is it to get hold of/solder onto the cut ends?
Again thanks to all,
Jon
I replaced all of my fluorescent bulbs with these strips: https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...tor/1465/4341/ which were purchased in 19.7" (0.5 m) lengths with connectors already attached. At $11.95 each I decided it was easier not to be bothered cutting the strips and attaching connectors or soldering wires. The half meter length fits a standard fixture perfectly if you remove the existing sockets. The strip is just long enough to cover the entire back of the fixture and then to bend up along the edges at both ends.

These particular strips each provide ~600 lumens of warm white light (3250K). I've had some in use for >4 years and have not had any problems with the adhesive nor have I had any failures.

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Old 10-30-2016, 10:15 PM   #14
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Originally Posted by Celerator View Post
I bought the M4 LED tubes, natural light, installed in three fixtures. Instructions are clear and the process was painless. The first fixture took 40 min, but I got faster. Good light, immediate light. I would recommend M4. M4 Products

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuff-Happens View Post
. . .ALL our bulbs are LED's as we boondock. . .M4 has STUNNING service, available help, good website & you can TALK to the owner if problems exist. . . I had an oddball fixture I call him on about the wiring & he said it was complex if not electrically minded; sent it to him per his request & shipped back done at NO CHARGE. . .Cannot beat the service if that is what you want after the sale!!!!!. . .


I put these same ones in a few years ago and no problems to date with them.
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