Led Interior Lights

[Vanman]

Are you sure they are rated for 12 volts?? find out and if not you could add an IC type of resistor to drop off some of the voltage.

[linda s]

A member of the Yahoo group recently posted the same problem. Here's what he said about led lights from ebay

Ebay item 201161822452 ~$15.29 for 10x 48 LED light panesl are a great buy except for one problem. The board gets hot and melts the double sided foam tape on the back and then it falls down on the lens. So, I got some high temp silicon ( Permetex high temperature red rtv) and applied about 3/16" thick on the back. Then I used double sided high temperature tape to hold it down on the light fixture. Plugging in your RV to shore power makes the problem worse, because the output voltage is higher than 12v dc So far, so good. These panels draw about 1/4 the power of an 1141 bulb and are brighter

Sounds like he got them to work but I still wouldn't use any light that was overheating.

Linda S

[zero]

. You could rewire your house to use 12 volts that would be nice except for the fact all the wiring would have to be replaced with a much larger wire to carry the load, all the breakers would have to be replaced with DC units and screw in LED standard base 12 volt bulbs are non existent.

I HAVE a house wired for 12 volts DC. All my lights have 12 volt bulbs with E26 Edison-bases just like 120 VAC standard bulbs. Mine are mostly 12 volt CFLs with a few LEDs. Plenty of places sell them but not something easy to find in a local chain store.

As far as circuit breakers go - one brand of the AC breakers and panels that Walmart sells are certified for AC and DC. That's the Square D type QO. So, easy to get and cheap.

Switches - that's more of a problem. All switches used for DC must be "snap" switches. Silent switches cannot be used. Plenty around but you have to look a little harder.

Wire? Yes, must be larger. Telephone wire as Totem mentions is NOT suitable. That might work for some short runs powering LEDs only but not for much else. A circiut wired with 12 gauge NM typically used for a 20 amp circut for 120 volts AC? Works fine for 20 amps with 12 volts DC also - but of course - 20 amps DC is only 1/10 of the power that 20 amps AC has.

My place wired for 12 volts DC has one main entrance panel where the battery bank and solar panels hook in. Square D type QO . Then there are two sub-panels (branch panels) in the house to cut down on wire sizes and length of runs. Each sub-panel is 40 feet from the main with AWG 6 copper wire and each panel has 60 amps capacity.

[Totem]

lol you are making me laugh. my leds on telephone wire are so cool i can put a babys wrist on em.

The guy obvisously got some bad chips (ones with no driver board baked in).

common jde you can do better than that. You are more than welcome to come over to my cabin and take the wrist on chip challenge.

But I agree with you thats all the wire is good for. you arent going to jump start a car off of it or run absolutely anything else other than the chips.

[Totem]

I bought some of the sticky foam backed LED panels and installed them tonight. In about ten minutes of running them the sticky back melts due to heat - creating smoke - and the LEDs are running HOT. Strange. I have not heard anyone report this here. I am a little sketched by these things and will be putting my regular bulbs back in till I can find a solution. Thoughts?

do you have a link to what you bought by chance? I want to make sure I avoid. I buy these things alot as we expand.

[Totem]

and jde, by the way, the connector wire on the LED panel is like 30 guage; its so freaking thin. I maintain if you have legit chips phone wire is no problemmo. been running my cabin for over 2 years now.

[zero]

lol you are making me laugh. my leds on telephone wire are so cool i can put a babys wrist on em.

The guy obvisously got some bad chips (ones with no driver board baked in).

common jde you can do better than that. You are more than welcome to come over to my cabin and take the wrist on chip challenge.

But I agree with you thats all the wire is good for. you arent going to jump start a car off of it or run absolutely anything else other than the chips.

Totem - once again you are trying to find fault with things I never said to start with. What exactly IS your problem? Low on anti-depressants?

I said larger wire is needed to wire a home with 12 volts DC then would be used if 120 volts AC. I never said that phone-wire cannot power a LED light. But a typical household has a hell of a lot more things to be powered then just LED lightbulbs.

Wire is wire and proper wiring is always based on load versus distance versus wire size/material/ampacity. What you call "telephone" wire can be many things. 26 gauge. 22 gauge, 18 gauge, etc. Those size wires can power many sorts of low-draw items depending on distance. NOT going to power anything with a substantial draw. Like my DC powered water-pump. Or my DC powered refrigerator. Or my DC powered inverters.

15 feet of 16 AWG copper wire can only power a 5 amp load before voltage drop goes beyond 5%. My 12 volt CFLs bulbs draw 1 amp each @ 12 volts. S0 a room with 5 lights that is a 50 foot distance from the main electric panel needs 10 gauge copper wire to keep drop below 5%. Telephone wire of 18-22 gauge would be useless for this.

Sorry if you don't understand Ohm's law and the issues of voltage-drop over distance.

[Totem]

anti depressants aren't really my gig; I was never a fan of taking pills for ailments perceived about me by others, that's more of something I would expect from another type of person other than me ; what ails me in this case is topic.

I keep forgetting with you that i need to go back and re-read the 6 pages of ADD rant to make sure I am talking about the same thing you are.

If you weren't implying that the phone wire was some how unacceptable for my led runs, my bad and apologies.

Back to the guys complaint, If the chips are getting hot enough to melt 3m foam tape something else is wrong.

as to understanding voltage drop; it only applies to your more inefficient choice of CFLs or larger loads not the LED panels I am using.

[RVdaytrader]

I've used these for 1 year, so far so good.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-x-RV-LED-Replacement-120-Degree-bulb-1156-base-250-LUM-12-24v-11568305-12-/321493980758

I like those...but will wait and hope the price comes down...most of the flat panel leds I put in have a row or two of unlit leds...the couple corncob style are good so far, but not as old as the flat panel.

[zero]

and jde, by the way, the connector wire on the LED panel is like 30 guage; its so freaking thin. I maintain if you have legit chips phone wire is no problemmo. been running my cabin for over 2 years now.

30 gauge wire is not typical ":phone wire." Regardless - 30 gauge copper wire is rated to carry a max. of 7/10ths of one amp. An LED bulb rated to make equal light to a 60 watt incandescent bulb draws 6/10ths of one amp. So to power just one LED bulb with a 60 watt eqiv. rating - 30 gauge would work for just a few feet.

Now taking wiring in a room in a place that we're calling a "house." Let's say one circuit to serve a max. of 6 lights. Distance of 50 feet from the main panel.

All 12 volt bulbs with 60 watts (if incandescent) or 60 equiv. if CFL or LED.

12 volt incandescent - six bulbs, 30 amps total, #4 gauge wire needed to keep drop below 5%.

12 volt CFL - six bulbs, 7.5 amps total, #8 gauge wire needed to keep drop below 5%.

12 volt LED - six bulbs, 4 amps total, #12 gauge wire needed to keep drop below 5%.

[Totem]

30 gauge wire is not typical ":phone wire." Regardless - 30 gauge copper wire is rated to carry a max. of 7/10ths of one amp. An LED bulb rated to make equal light to a 60 watt incandescent bulb draws 6/10ths of one amp. So to power just one LED bulb with a 60 watt eqiv. rating - 30 gauge would work for just a few feet.

Now taking wiring in a room in a place that we're calling a "house." Let's say one circuit to serve a max. of 6 lights. Distance of 50 feet from the main panel.

All 12 volt bulbs with 60 watts (if incandescent) or 60 equiv. if CFL or LED.

12 volt incandescent - six bulbs, 30 amps total, #4 gauge wire needed to keep drop below 5%.

12 volt CFL - six bulbs, 7.5 amps total, #8 gauge wire needed to keep drop below 5%.

12 volt LED - six bulbs, 4 amps total, #12 gauge wire needed to keep drop below 5%.

the connector wire is the wire supplied with the LED panel, it has nothing to do with my phone run.