LED lighting Warning Fire Hazard see post #9

[CharlieTwo]

See post #9 below for important update

I bought some LED lights to replace my interior lights last year and I didn't get big enough ones. Somewhere on this site I read about some led lights that have an adhesive back. I just received these
eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices and they are super bright. We will see how long they last but they sure seem to be the ticket. they do not have the correct adapter but I can use old bulbs for that and solder the wires to them. For the price, it seems worth it.

[ahicks]

I bought the same ones, same problem. I thought that the pictured adapter would allow me to use them where a 1091 bulb goes, but found the supplied adapter too small, just like you did. Same solution you found on the first one, but that was just about enough trouble to make it worth dropping the fixture and just wiring the new bulbs in direct. -Al

[CharlieTwo]

I hadn't thought of dropping the fixture. I could solder the connector onto the existing wires in the MH and have any future replacement of the light made pretty easy. Thanks for the idea.

[CharlieTwo]

There is a real easy fix for the adapter. Real easy.
I took an old bulb, laid it on the garage floor , positioned the bulb so that the element was horizontal with the floor and hit it gently, real gently with a hammer. I removed the center element that produces the light and was left with two prongs. They are fairly sturdy. I wrapped the red wire to one side and the black to the other. I put the socket back into the light fixture and.......... BINGO! works great. I will solder the wires on tomorrow but really, this is very easy to do and does not disturb anything........... Try it, you'll like it.

I forgot: one of the adapters is a small plastic housing. The wires are just bent over and not crimped. I straightened out the wires and pulled the plastic off. There is plenty of bare wire to wrap around the stems of the old light bulb. With this setup, you can just unplug the burned out light and plug a new one in.

[ahicks]

Thanks Charlie! That idea led to something that worked really well for me. I was trying to use the original solder points on the base after breaking the bulb out. Reading how you did it, I took that idea a step further. Soldered the leads where you wrapped them, then covered with shrink tube to insulate and firm the joint up. Perfect...

I bought 6 of these to try (they were cheap!). Kinda wierd, because I got 2 "warm" white, which I really like, and 4 "bright" white. Bright is kinda like a fluorescent light, but not blue. I see no physical difference warm vs. white. Just a heads up, FWIW

[JimM68]

I really gotta get on the stick with these.
My bus has over 20 halogen puck lights. I clamped an ammeter on one last week, they draw 1.68 amps EACH!!!

[CharlieTwo]

I will find out how long these lights last, but I just ordered some more for spares. I'm going to try some of them on my boat.

[CharlieTwo]

Just an update: ahicks, I also used the shrink tubing. thanks. I got the lights done and put them in my MH. I am very pleased with the results. More light than the original bulbs but not too much light. Very economical way to convert to LED lights.

[CharlieTwo]

WARNING!!!!!

These lights are unsafe! I had only had them on for 15-20 minutes before, but today I had them on for an hour and they got so hot that on one light, the adhesive backing melted and caught fire! It was a good thing I was around. I checked the other lights and the same thing was happening to them also. It was a lot of wasted work and money. Do not use the lights that I left a link about above............VERY DANDEROUS

[Shadowcatche]

I had no problem with the ones I used. What is the actual temperature being experienced, these do get hot, but in excess of 451F (combustion of paper)?

[BFlinn181]

I agree with wb&auk. LED lights need a current limiting resistor. Regular incandescent bulbs have built in resistance as the nature of the beast. LEDs need a resistor added. There are numerous websites that educate you on this need:

How to wire an LED, Tutorial and Calculator

Also calculators for the size of resistor required, for single and parallel LED installations:

LED Calculator - Current limiting resistor calculator for LED arrays
LED series parallel array wizard

I posted this on your other thread also.

[Shadowcatche]

The arrays I have currently have a resistor built in, but then they are a G4 base and not the ones shown.

[CharlieTwo]

The temperature was hot enough to burn the backing of the lights and the wiring. Burnt as in... black, melted plastic and soot. I won't try that stunt again. As they come from the factory, they are not correct. No resistors anywhere in the system.

[Sky_Boss]

Originally Posted by CharlieTwo

The temperature was hot enough to burn the backing of the lights and the wiring. Burnt as in... black, melted plastic and soot. I won't try that stunt again. As they come from the factory, they are not correct. No resistors anywhere in the system.

From this thread and the other related thread it sounds like you installed these without any resistors? Is that correct?