Changing florescent to l e d that look like florescent

There are now LED replacement "tubes" that look like and act like your existing setup but they may not be designed for your 12V system.

I just did mine like D E Bishop did, Strips, a total of 5 Meters of LED's (for under 10 bucks on Amazon)

One thing I did differnt is cut the lights apart always at the solder pads but cut in a "Chair" pattern (Up to mid point of strip then between the Positive and Negative pads and then up to the top)

That way on one end I had all negative pads
On the other end all positive

So I just ran a bare "Bus bar" type jumper up the pads.. I had just three other places. I do not have a LO-HI, only high.

Finished my last unit over the weekend on the 3 I have.

A techician I know also uses the 5 meter strips but by bending and doubling back he does not need jumpers at all. I really like the results.

William B wrote:
I used M4 LED bulbs. I removed the ballasts and altered the wiring according to their detailed instructions and am very happy with the result. A little more expensive than strips but it was easy and works well. JMHO

I also used M4 LED bulbs,works very well.

I ordered this set from Amazon. I have replaced the bulbs in one light in the bathroom hallway in our motor home. These are quite a bit brighter than the original fluorescent bulbs.

I still have two LED bulbs on hand, but I have four more lights I want to replace so I need to order a couple more sets of these. I'm pleased with the light output.

If you want the same output as your fluorescent tubes, you need to match both the color temperature and the lumens. Color temperature is how "cool" or "warm" the light looks. Lumens is a measure of brightness.

Find the wattage of your fluorescent bulbs, and google what the lumen output is. (Or it may be on the bulb) You want your LEDs to have the same total lumen output.

THIS CHART is a good guide to color temperature.

Looks good. Easier than my approach. I like the way you handle the hi/low switching. I replaced the switch with a DPDT center off switch to do the hi/low on mine. The strips with the aluminum backing should aid in cooling and last longer.

When looking for LEDs, the brightest have 7020, 5730, or 5630 LED chips. Look for listings the tell how many lumens are produced.

D.E.Bishop wrote:

Easy to do if you have a pencil soldering iron.

You can buy simple snap on connectors...no soldering needed.

Back to your question, there are several makers of LED tubes that fit in the holders for fluorescent tubes. They run from $25 to $60 each and all of them seem to require disconnecting the ballast and they have a pigtail that connects to the 12volt source.

I have not tried any of them due to high cost, about $35 on average or $70 per slim-lite fixture.

I used strips of LEDs mounted on aluminum from Ebay and a standard slim-lite on/off switch.

I mounted the strips with contact cement and wired the strips in series. All mine are wall switch control so the on/off switch is used to control how many strips are on at a time, two for mood or five for reading. I did four fixtures, three with the hi-lo switch.

Switches were more than the LEDs about $15.00 for the switches and $10.00 for the LEDs. I don't work well upside down so I removed the fixtures from the ceiling and took them to my work bench.

Here are some photos of the finished product.


Strips glued and wired in the stripped out fixture.


Fixture on lo.


Fixture on hi.

Easy to do if you have a pencil soldering iron.

i have picked up these off aliexpress and found they work great as well, though a bit long, they can easly be trimed down to fit

I did THIS, it works great. It worked so well in fact when we did our new kitchen I used the same method to do the under cabinet lights. Even our contractor was impressed with how cheap, simple, easy, and effective it was.