Fluorescent to LED conversion
I have 2 of these fluorescent fixtures in the Lance, they work great and give off lots of light but not really very energy efficient when boondocking. I looked at swapping in LED bulbs in place of th...
Forum Discussion
C Schomer wrote:
I completely converted my last 2 fifth wheels to LEDs, including the stick-on strips in the fluorescent fixtures and now I have another idea. I want to add more LED strips to some of the fluorescent fixtures to make them super bright for trailer cleaning day, reading, etc. and put a dimmer on them. Beings they are DC, I’m guessing a dimmer just reduces the voltage slightly too dim them. Sooo... 99% of the time those LED strips would be dimmed, so would that eliminate the problems with over voltage and heating? Craig
Most LED dimmers are PWM chopper circuits, I believe; they rapidly switch the LEDs on and off with a varying duty cycle. This would help with the heating issues, as the power dissipation is reduced with the dimming.
LEDs themselves operate at an approximately constant voltage drop, the LEDs forward voltage. Intensity is controlled by current flow, and regulated somehow--in inexpensive fixtures or typical LED tape, by having a ballast resistor. In better fixture or LED bulb designs this is some sort of active driver circuit that regulates the current, but you almost certainly won't find them in LED tape.
