Mr. Moderator, please feel free to move it to DIY forum if it belongs there.On my 2nd year I already hate dome lights in my trailer. Will be replacing the wedge bulbs with LED boards, but this won't resolve all the problems. I realize that with 6'6" ceiling the light fixtures have to be low-profile, but maybe there is something better than those domes?I am 5'7" and they are close to my eyes level, and there are clear "lens" in the middle of each matte diffuser - why, for God's sake? To make bulbs shine brighter into my eye?The one in the bathroom makes face look weird - like when somebody is holding a flashlight under his chin when telling a scary story to children. Only upside down, with light shining from the top - almost next to my crown - vertically downwards, pretty focused beam, poorly diffused. I thought of moving it onto the wall, above the mirror, but then again those stupid clear "lens" on diffusers - the light will hit straight into eyes then. Thought of taking a sandpaper to those clear lens, really.The one under the kitchen wall cabinet is most annoying - have to hold one hand against the light, to block the light in order to see what's in the cabinet. OK, can install a decorative plate under the cabinet, like those sold in IKEA for that purpose. Clear lens are still lame, I prefer more diffused light in my work zone.LED boards will result - I hope - in more diffused light, in addition to energy savings which I need in my offgrid living. But maybe there is something better than those stupid domes? Any suggestions are appreciated.

I'm going to experiment with LED strip lighting instead of messing with the domes... if it works I'd like to remove the domes but I'm worried what the ceiling looks like under the fixture. I tried making my own retrofit leds for the domes, but I like things BRIGHT and these fixtures just don't provide enough air circulation to support high-power leds. The commonly found low power retrofit bulbs are only a marginal improvement in brightness (big power savings though.)I picked up some 1200 lumen 12 volt led strips, warm-white in color to mess with from www.superbrightleds.com.

I am changing all of mine to recessed led lights to get bteer light and also take care of the height problem.

Hi Almot,There are white plastic diffusers. Of course, they let less light out.

The only time our overhead lights are on anywhere is when cleaning. I have two small table lamps with 12v CFL bulbs, and replaced the 110v plugs with 12v cig plugs. The lighting looks exactly as it does at home.

Almot wrote:...maybe there is something better than those stupid domes? Any suggestions are appreciated.I'm not sure that this is "better than the stupid domes", but here's what is working for me;I wanted some lighting above the dinette that was lower current and warmer color than the existing fluorescent fixture, so I picked up some (2700ºK) IKEA LED's for $50 and made a lightweight plastic mounting plate for them. I also added a PWM dimmer circuit which gives me the ability to reduce the light output and power use, with very little change in the color temp'… You can see the black knob for the dimmer sticking out of the end of the fluoro' fixture in the pic' below.I am very pleased with the result and at some point I'll probably replace several other dome lights with a setup like this one. Hope this helps.Cheers, -Mark

Dome lights - any better options? | Good Sam Community

cpaulsen
Explorer
Feb 06, 2014
GordonThree wrote:
Almot what do you think of these fixtures?

9 Watt LED Recessed Light Fixture
7 Watt LED Recessed Light Fixture

I took one of my plastics domes off the ceiling and there is a roughly 1.5" hole, and six small screw holes... I could open it up to a 3" or 4" hole to receive a recessed down light. My big concern is these lights are designed to be installed nine or ten feet off the floor, not six feet, I'm afraid they'll cast a bright circle of light onto my floor and leave the rest in the shadows.

There are some on EBay that I am going to order. They are either 4 1/2" or 3.2" recessed lights..both require at least 1" depth for mounting. All the pics show them mounted in a motorhome. You can get the 4 1/2" ones for about 8.00 each.
GordonThree
Explorer
Feb 05, 2014
Almot what do you think of these fixtures?

9 Watt LED Recessed Light Fixture
7 Watt LED Recessed Light Fixture

I took one of my plastics domes off the ceiling and there is a roughly 1.5" hole, and six small screw holes... I could open it up to a 3" or 4" hole to receive a recessed down light. My big concern is these lights are designed to be installed nine or ten feet off the floor, not six feet, I'm afraid they'll cast a bright circle of light onto my floor and leave the rest in the shadows.
Almot
Explorer III
Feb 01, 2014
Ops - posted my comment in the original thread by Tenbear, rather than here. Doesn't matter. Sand it, don't tilt.

After all the suggestions and ideas, I'm firmer now in my intent to use fluorescent tube fixtures but with LEDs instead of fluorescent. Either strips or a few SMD boards in parallel.
tenbear
Explorer
Feb 01, 2014
GordonThree wrote:
Nice mod on that fixture Tenbear

Thank you. Since I posted that I have frosted the ends of the lens using sandpaper on the inside surface. It worked well and hides the wires. I think sanding the total inside would work very well.
GordonThree
Explorer
Feb 01, 2014
Nice mod on that fixture Tenbear
tenbear
Explorer
Feb 01, 2014
At one point you mentioned replacing your lights with fluorescent fixtures and replacing the fluorescent tubes with LED tubes.

Here is a link to a fluorescent tube replacement with LED strips that I did. It certainly cost a lot less than the LED tubes.

I used 3 15 LED strips in the light and it is much brighter and better color, warm white, than the original.

I realize the fluorescents you get are not the same as this one but the idea should still work.
GordonThree
Explorer
Jan 31, 2014
Almot wrote:

Have you tried them already? How is color temp - is it what it says? Are watts/amps where they should be? ... proper cover/diffuser and rocker switch. Strip are very narrow, about half inch, and need a diffuser to spread the light and avoid contrast shades

I snow-blowed a path to my TT door today, so I hope to fire up the furnace and spend some time in there this weekend.

The strips are warm-white, they look close to their advertised color, whiter than incandescent but still warmer than a "daylight" type LED. They came with a frosted diffuser, which does blend the individual LEDs after a few feet. I do concede your point, the plain aluminum strip is not a complete fixture and doesn't look as finished. Mine will be mounted under-cabinet, and I might put some wood trim along with them to dress it up a bit.

I haven't measured the current draw, I suppose I will dig out the multimeter and make sure they perform as advertised.
JiminDenver
Explorer II
Jan 31, 2014
Almot

In my overheads I have the clear lenses with the clear lens in the bottom. Using a panel puts even more light downward vs a cob style.
Almot
Explorer III
Jan 31, 2014
GordonThree wrote:

These strips appeared better than most...

Have you tried them already? How is color temp - is it what it says? Are watts/amps where they should be?

The topic has deviated a little - which means there is no real answer to my initial questions about fixtures. Strips look like a more distributed light source than LED boards, this is good, but they are just strips. What I hoped to find was fixtures for strips, similar to those for fluorescent, with a proper cover/diffuser and rocker switch. Strip are very narrow, about half inch, and need a diffuser to spread the light and avoid contrast shades. Under-cabinet fixtures for fluorescent tubes come the closest, though the length is not always right. IKEA sells under-cabinet fixtures with LED strips, but they are mere 3W, i.e. equivalent to 12W incandescent (they don't specify lumens and I doubt they have cutting-edge LEDs there).

Ok, will keep on looking...
GordonThree
Explorer
Jan 31, 2014
Almot wrote:
Gordon, I'll have to look into LED strips in your link. Its wattage is pretty high, @8W per foot, higher than most other strips. I think 1440 lumens strip is equivalent to ~3 domes, not 7.

For majority of LEDs you multiply the watts by 4 to get their equivalent in incandescent. Ex, 10W LED (strip, board, whatever) puts out roughly same lumens as a double-bulb incandescent dome with 40W total. Those LED strips that I've seen, have 2 or 3 watt per foot, i.e. to get lumens that a 40W dome puts out, you need 10W LED or 3-5 ft strip.

These strips appeared better than most, but still rather low compared to where the cutting edge is. At almost 30 watts, these strips should be putting out 3000 lm ... if only they used modern LEDs (using a modest 100lm/w figure, the real cutting edge is over 200lm/w.) See Cree Breaks 200 Lumen Per Watt Efficacy Barrier

You are correct, regarding my dome-lights, I did mis-speak. They are equipped with two GE 921 incandescent bulbs ~250 lm each for a total of 500 lumens per dome... so one strip replaces three domes and I'm installing three strips :)

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