Replacing ceiling lights & adding more light

[coolmom42]

As usual, the incandescent bulbs in my ceiling lights put out way too much heat, use way too much electricity, and don't put out enough light. Also the fixture covers are somewhat dingy.

I'm looking at these Lumitronics brand for both double and single light fixture replacements. Color temp is listed as 2833K, which is good. Lumen output is listed as 455, which is less than a 60 W incandescent, but as many fixtures as I have, that should be enough. I like that the cover is overall diffused so there is not a blinding bright spot in the center.


In spite of having a lot of ceiling lights, there is not a switch by the door for any light. Also some black holes in basement storage and a couple of cabinets. I'm thinking about getting a few of these battery powered lights to stick around in such locations. They have good reviews on Amazon and on Harbor Freight. (cheaper on Amazon.)

Just wondering if anyone has used these specific fixtures???? or have something possibly better to suggest?

[toddbailey]

yup trust but verify. The nice thing about these lights is they don't require a heat sink, but the thin light housing acts as a natural heat sink. The frame measurements are approx 20 inches x 5 inches aluminium so a decent sized heatsink.

[gotsmart]

I replaced all of my 1141 pancake fixtures with Thin-Lite LED pancake fixtures. The only hiccup was discovering that the red and black leads on the the Thin-Lite fixtures were reversed. Black was (+) and red (-). Black-to-red, red-to-black - easy fix.

Thin-Lite LED double pancake
Thin-Lite LED single pancake

I replaced nine 1141 double pancake lights and one 1141 single pancake light. I replaced the incandescent bulb in the range hood with an LED replacement bulb. I did not bother with the fridge's bulb.

[cavie]

coolmom42 wrote:
As usual, the incandescent bulbs in my ceiling lights put out way too much heat, use way too much electricity, and don't put out enough light. Also the fixture covers are somewhat dingy.

I'm looking at these Lumitronics brand for both double and single light fixture replacements. Color temp is listed as 2833K, which is good. Lumen output is listed as 455, which is less than a 60 W incandescent, but as many fixtures as I have, that should be enough. I like that the cover is overall diffused so there is not a blinding bright spot in the center.

Just change to LED blubs. Don't use the 6000K bright white. awefull. I changed them to 35005 Warm white. Love it.
In spite of having a lot of ceiling lights, there is not a switch by the door for any light. Also some black holes in basement storage and a couple of cabinets. I'm thinking about getting a few of these battery powered lights to stick around in such locations. They have good reviews on Amazon and on Harbor Freight. (cheaper on Amazon.)

Just wondering if anyone has used these specific fixtures???? or have something possibly better to suggest?

[MEXICOWANDERER]

TEST the LED lamps before installing them. Light them up. Press finger against LEDs. If you scream in pain from getting burned choose another lamp. My experience (considerable) with LED emitters is at 120F (50c) they will last a long time. If the array burns your finger buy extras, you'll need them.

The most expensive LEDs are those that keep burning out.

Ignore reviews from idiots who rate the lamp after 2 minutes of on-time.

Choose lamps highly rated by reviewers and I mean several reviewers on this forum. Idiot reviews on Amazon are worthless. I conduct voltage and temperature Delta T experiments here. The cooler the P/N junction operates, the longer the life of the emitter. I manufactured 500 watts consumed stadium lamps in 2012 that still burn 6 hours a day. No failures. 50-watt store fixtures that operate 8 hours a day for the last 8 years, again no failures.

[toddbailey]

I'm putting together a utube video on how to convert a thinlite fixture to led. stay tuned

[coolmom42]

I thought about replacing just the bulbs, but some of the fixtures have broken switches. It would be better to have them all the same.

[coolmom42]

JimK-NY wrote:
When I bought my camper 10 years ago I immediately replaced all the bulbs with LED bulbs. They were expensive at the time but worth it. A few years ago I got tired of the old fixtures and poorly designed switches. The new fixtures are really inexpensive and the switches and light is much better.

At this point it is hard to go wrong with LEDs. Just be sure they are rated for up to about 15 volts because absorption charging will be somewhere around 14.4 volts.

You might also want to reconsider the temperature rating for your LED lights. 3000K sounds good because it matches what most of us were used to years ago with incandescent lights. They emitted very yellow light. I have switched to 5000K lighting. I like the fact that the lighting is closer to sunlight. Now 3000K lighting just seems dingy.

It's a matter of individual preference. I have 3000K LEDs all over my house and I like them. Not a fan of the cooler tones in a living space. They are fine in a workshop or garage.

[coolmom42]

MrWizard wrote:
I changed all the ceiling fixtures in this RV to new led fixtures kohree brand from Amazon
You will love the power savings
But first I tried led replacement lamps (corn cob bayonet bulbs) in the old fixtures,
But between the old yellowed defusers and corn cob design lamps just not enough light output
The new fixtures with flat board lamps
Give much more light, and measured as using less power

We tried changing out the bulbs in the TT, too. Couldn't get enough light that way, like you said.

[coolmom42]

pianotuna wrote:
coolmom,

Jump to LED bulbs. Not much heat, not much electricity, and up to 5 times the lumens. No need to change the fixtures--just buy bulbs. I only bought leds for my most commonly used lights.

For your door, try a motion detector solar powered light for outside. For inside use the same technology--but battery powered.

I got two of the "switched" lights you linked to at a dollar store--for about a dollar. The adhesive on the back is less than special. Mine fell off in less than a week. But that's easily fixed.

The replacements I linked are LEDs.

Not a fan of motion sensors because they drive me crazy being set off by critters. I may get some small solars for the steps, not sure. I planned on putting the battery lights up with screws.

[toddbailey]

In my case, most of the ceiling lights were thin lite dual 18" fluorescent. These are ok when new but after many years flicker and fail, and burn though new bulbs fairly quickly. I finally decided to remove the ballasts and sockets and lay down a strip of led lights. nice thing is you can not only choose the light temp but the lumen output. I went with 3500K is is a nice color, for the living room and hallways, in the dinning kitchen area I went a tad bit warmer and used 3000K. what few incandescent were also upgraded to leds (1141 series) with 2700 K 300 lumen , I got the leds from superbrightleds.com and the 1141 drop in off amazon. All told a bit spendy but much better to just have lights that don't flicker and need to be managed all the time to get them to work.

[ndrorder]

I've been very happy with these LED incandescent replacements. 2 years and no failures.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B017386GLS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[JimK-NY]

When I bought my camper 10 years ago I immediately replaced all the bulbs with LED bulbs. They were expensive at the time but worth it. A few years ago I got tired of the old fixtures and poorly designed switches. The new fixtures are really inexpensive and the switches and light is much better.

At this point it is hard to go wrong with LEDs. Just be sure they are rated for up to about 15 volts because absorption charging will be somewhere around 14.4 volts.

You might also want to reconsider the temperature rating for your LED lights. 3000K sounds good because it matches what most of us were used to years ago with incandescent lights. They emitted very yellow light. I have switched to 5000K lighting. I like the fact that the lighting is closer to sunlight. Now 3000K lighting just seems dingy.

[2oldman]

coolmom42 wrote:
I'm thinking about getting a few of these battery powered lights to stick around in such locations.

I had one of those. The switch failed in just a few months. 2800k is a bit on the yellow side.

[madjack60]

The bulbs in mine were 1141 bulbs and I replaced 20 of them for about $24 with LED bulbs from amazon.

2001 Itasca 31c