converting light fixtures to 12 volt

muddog16 · February 28, 2013, 07:14:44 AM

I ordered my LED lamps from Amazon (they came from China DHL in 4 days), they have been excellant. I checked my total lighting load with everything on in the bus...........it was less than 2amps (18 fixtures), and they were impressive with the amount of light they gave off. With my roof raise I had 5 inches of clearance between the ceiling and roof. The fixtures came from Lowes ($10 each) can lights. I took the connection box off of the top of those can lights, used a conduit punch (1/2") and just came through the side of the fixture for my electrical connections. By removing the connection box these fixtures were perfect for the bus. That comes out to about $25 for each fixture. It's a little work but turned out great.

Lin · February 28, 2013, 08:12:42 AM

The bus had about a half dozen standard RV type fixtures with bayonet mount bulbs. I bought LED's with the same mount off Ebay. They were cheap and came in warm white, which is good since I don't like the bright white much.

gus · February 28, 2013, 11:22:57 AM

Gerry,

Thanks. No, I use lights only for light, no artistic ceiling lights, floors and mirrors for me! The simpler the better!!

Lin · February 28, 2013, 01:09:15 PM

Gus, No mirrors! I thought bedroom ceiling mirrors were part some sort of RV code.

gus · February 28, 2013, 01:21:36 PM

Lin, I expect those fancy ceilings and floors to go the way of tail fins!

Van · February 28, 2013, 06:27:41 PM

Quote from: Lin on February 28, 2013, 01:09:15 PM
Gus, No mirrors! I thought bedroom ceiling mirrors were part some sort of RV code.

Only if ya have a pole back in there!lol

Lin · February 28, 2013, 06:39:27 PM

Van, we tried that, but I hurt my back trying to dance on it.

crown · March 02, 2013, 04:06:03 PM

i thought this was a good way to turn home lamps in to 12 volt bus / rv lamp
looks easy to make and no damage to the antiqe lamp

mike802 · March 02, 2013, 07:14:56 PM

Hi Crown: Do you know anything about the picture? I had a similar idea but the light bulb bases I had were aluminum, so were not able to solder to. Maybe those are old fuse type bases made from brass?

crown · March 03, 2013, 06:01:31 AM

hi mike not sure i saved this picture about 10 yrs ago and forgot it till this tread it took about
a hour just to find the picture john

Uglydog56 · March 07, 2013, 12:47:21 PM

My wife wanted standard household light fixtures that we found at a local home improvement warehouse.

I picked up these bulbs for them at CW:

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/15-watt-fluorescent-12-volt-bulb/44377

Seemed a simple and cheap solution. I haven't installed them yet, though. Am I missing something?

mike802 · March 08, 2013, 07:23:42 AM

QuoteMy wife wanted standard household light fixtures that we found at a local home improvement warehouse.

I picked up these bulbs for them at CW:

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/15-watt-fluorescent-12-volt-bulb/44377

Seemed a simple and cheap solution. I haven't installed them yet, though. Am I missing something?

Yea I saw these during my searching, unfortunately my wife and I really dislike them, for some reason they bother our eyes and we really dont want to hassle with the mercury vapor during clean up if one should break. Given the opportunity, we would rather go the L.E.D route even though they are more expensive.

I found an old twist in fuse at a hardware store and it had a brass base that could be soldered to, I think these could be made to accept a 12 volt light like the one Crown showed. It would be nice to be able to replace a bulb anywhere from an auto parts store, but I like the extremely low wattage draw from the L.E.D's.