How to convert to LED lighting

NetBoy wrote:

Golden_HVAC wrote:

After that, I might change my 26W florescent from 18" tube to a bunch of 12 or 24 LED panels, and see how that works out.

Here is a florescent to LED conversion I did:


This is my main ceiling light, and it works GREAT! I added a push-on push-off switch for the light's main power, and am using the original rocker switch to select the brightness level (rocker selects 3 panels, or all 6 panels).

The blue goop you see in the photo is silicone adhesive - I found that the double sided foam tape that comes on the LED panels often fails in warm conditions, so I have just been forcing a little silicone under the sides or corners of the panels and that solved the problem (the original double sided foam tape is still under there). The silicone is fairly easy to remove if needed. Others have talked about adding screws to the sides of the panels, but the silicone has been working great for me - fast and easy.

I also have a boat which has about a half dozen florescent lights fixtures, several of which are flickering and dim.... so I have begun converting them too. I am starting to use LED panels with 24 each 5050 SMDs (each 5050 SMD actually is a package containing 3 individual LEDs).

Have fun.....

This conversion does look great, and looks much like what I did to my much smaller bathroom fixture with installing 4 plug in wires using tiny blue wire nuts to the #18 wire at the factory switch and ground wire.

The only exceptions is this picture shows 36 SMD that looks like 3528 SMD's (3.5 X 2.8 mm) and I used 5050 SMD's in 24 LEDS per panel, so mine are a little brighter, because each LED is 5mm square. And I can unplug my LED panel in a year or two, upgrade to a larger panel, or downgrade to save power, or replace a worn out one in a few years (perhaps 25 years before I get 5,000 hours on the bathroom fixture) (unless I die of very old age first).

And my pack of 10 each 24 SMD 5050 panels was only $26.50 with free shipping. This will work well with a florescent fixture, but I have no plans on converting them at this point. I guess the light is a little to blue for my reading enjoyment. A mixture of blue/white LED's and a couple of small red LED's would change the color to less blue I guess? To bad they don't make a 24 LED with 5050's and then have 4 tiny red LED's down the center, to add some red to the lineup, without adding to much electric demand.

Fred.