BajaNomad

12 volt lighting

volcano - 5-9-2012 at 06:52 AM

good source of nice looking 12 volt lighting fixtures?

larryC - 5-9-2012 at 07:48 AM

The only places I know of for 12v lighting is fixtures is camping and trailer supply outlets.

larryC - 5-9-2012 at 08:08 AM

Just on second thought, add a cheap inverter and then you have all the choices in lighting that homedepot or any other lighting source has to offer.
Larry

willardguy - 5-9-2012 at 10:04 AM

northern arizona wind and sun is a great source

Fernweh - 5-9-2012 at 10:15 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by volcano
good source of nice looking 12 volt lighting fixtures?


You also will be able to find lamp adapters, so you can use 12V lamps, LED's in regular 120V lighting fixtures, which will broaden your search

volcano - 5-9-2012 at 03:19 PM

is the adapter something that screws into the socket to accept the led bulb?

Fernweh - 5-9-2012 at 03:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by volcano
is the adapter something that screws into the socket to accept the led bulb?


Yes, you have to source it through RV, boat and other 12V appliance business

Santiago - 5-9-2012 at 06:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by volcano
good source of nice looking 12 volt lighting fixtures?

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=58325#pid6977...

DavidT - 5-9-2012 at 09:57 PM

http://www.imtra.com/lighting-light-fixtures.htm

http://cantalupiusa.com/architectural-lighting-main

http://www.hellamarine.com/en/products/interior-exterior-lam...

volcano - 5-10-2012 at 06:51 AM

as usual...you are all very helpful with my little cabana project! thanks you very much!

boe4fun - 5-10-2012 at 07:09 AM

You also might try Harbor Frieght.

oladulce - 5-10-2012 at 08:30 AM

I'm using the 120v version of some of these lights in my kitchen and you'll find that because they're considered "outdoor" lights, some are available in 12v.

http://www.affordablequalitylighting.com/outdoor-lighting/wa...

It looks like the 12V version of the lights I have will accept a 12V A19 bulb which seem to range from 25-100w. So to get enough task lighting, they use quite a bit of power.

We have mostly 120V lighting in our solar casa, but we also have some 12V. I used the 12V version of some dome-step lights from the same company in our staircase for low-lighting and along with the patio, I've got 23 of them. I've been LED bulb shopping online for weeks now and am overwhelmed so I'm just buying 5w jc bin g4 halogen bulbs and will substitute LED's later - luckily all the 5watt bulbs won't be on at once.

If you shop for 12V outdoor lights for your interior, pay attention to the types of bulbs the fixtures use. Many use "halogen" type PAR bulbs like MR16's and PAR 30 which use alot of power. If you want to go with the LED version of these bulbs in 12V, the cost of bulbs that provide a decent amount of light will knock your socks off.

I'm getting my LEDs from these guys and they have a few 12V LED options.

Earth LED

volcano - 5-11-2012 at 06:56 AM

great advice Ola....thanks for your time.

volcano - 5-11-2012 at 07:12 AM

Ola..great bulb source, and the copper fixtures are pretty good. I'm still trying to understand the "what if" I bought regular fixtures and converted them......exactly what is the conversion kit...and will they be terribly inefficient?

bkbend - 5-11-2012 at 09:47 AM

Personally, I'd stick to the RV supply sites. They build stuff for 12V applications and my gut feeling is that would be better than converting something into an application it wasn't designed for. Even if you later go to the inverter/110V route you can leave a couple of the 12V in place so you have lights when the inverter fries and you're trying to finish cooking dinner before you change out to your spare inverter.

Cypress - 5-11-2012 at 09:54 AM

Ever tried propane lights? Used 'em for years in a deer camp.;)

Udo - 5-11-2012 at 10:16 AM

By the way, while on the 12 volt subject.

Last month I switched all my RV bulbs to LED. www.superbrightleds.com and my electric bill was dramatically lower!

Originally about $50.00 U.S.D. now $12.00.
At this rate it will take about 12 years to get a return on my investment of $800.00 for the LED's
There are two brightness levels: cool white and warm white. I used cool white for reading areas and warm white for ambient lighting. The bulbs were all 15 LED puck lights that replaced the G4 incandescent bulbs.

I purchase all the bulbs at Superbright because they were all made in the US. There are other companies that sold cheaper versions made in China, but reliability was an issue.

[Edited on 5-11-2012 by Udo]

Udo - 5-11-2012 at 10:20 AM

Forgot to mention...I have 6 fluorescent lights inside the coach, but none of the were replaced. There wasn't much difference in amperage draw between LEDs and fluorescent, and each fluorescent replacement lamp was about $80.00 USD.
Would never see any return on investment on those.

oladulce - 5-11-2012 at 10:49 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Udo
By the way, while on the 12 volt subject.

There are two brightness levels: cool white and warm white. I used cool white for reading areas and warm white for ambient lighting. The bulbs were all 15 LED puck lights that replaced the G4 incandescent bulbs.



I still have 15 interior recessed lights to buy PAR20 LED bulbs for and (at a cost of $450 investment for these dimmable bulbs) I've been stalling because i can't decide whether to buy Earth LEDs "warm" or "cool".

I've never seen PAR LEDs in person and the online photos which show the difference between the light quality of the 2 varies widely. Some label their bulbs "warm" between 2800-4000 kelvin and some "cool" range from 4000-6000 K. That's a wide range within each category.

The photos of Some "warm" bulbs are way too yellow for my taste, and some of the "cool" bulbs remind me of morgue lighting. I'd like to find a bulb that's similar to the light quality of a PAR halogen- crisp white but not cold blue.

A 30 day return policy from a US merchant doesn't do much good after we return to Mexico so I've got pressure to shop wisely so the bulbs don't end up on ebay or cluttering our garage like some of my other poor choices:no:

Someday I'd like to switch out the fixtures or bulbs in our trailer and camper and I'll check out superbrightled again. thanks

vgabndo - 5-11-2012 at 07:06 PM

We had a minimal 12v illum. system at San Nicolas' for years. The most impressive bang for the watt I found was a little peanut sized 9w 12v designed for use in landscape lighting, Malibu I think. It was a little halogen and too bright in all directions without some sort of shade. We used it overhead for the whole dining room.

That whole place was recycled from GAP stores I built, and one of the neat scores from demolition time was the two little 12v 4" headlight parts on an emergency lighting battery pack. Plastic, no rust, and uses its own nut to attach it to an "L" bracket. They made good reading lights or a night light for the bodega. Nicely priced too.:bounce:

woody with a view - 5-11-2012 at 10:24 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by oladulce
Quote:
Originally posted by Udo
By the way, while on the 12 volt subject.

There are two brightness levels: cool white and warm white. I used cool white for reading areas and warm white for ambient lighting. The bulbs were all 15 LED puck lights that replaced the G4 incandescent bulbs.



I still have 15 interior recessed lights to buy PAR20 LED bulbs for and (at a cost of $450 investment for these dimmable bulbs) I've been stalling because i can't decide whether to buy Earth LEDs "warm" or "cool".

I've never seen PAR LEDs in person and the online photos which show the difference between the light quality of the 2 varies widely. Some label their bulbs "warm" between 2800-4000 kelvin and some "cool" range from 4000-6000 K. That's a wide range within each category.

The photos of Some "warm" bulbs are way too yellow for my taste, and some of the "cool" bulbs remind me of morgue lighting. I'd like to find a bulb that's similar to the light quality of a PAR halogen- crisp white but not cold blue.

A 30 day return policy from a US merchant doesn't do much good after we return to Mexico so I've got pressure to shop wisely so the bulbs don't end up on ebay or cluttering our garage like some of my other poor choices:no:

Someday I'd like to switch out the fixtures or bulbs in our trailer and camper and I'll check out superbrightled again. thanks


just to solidify your choice, there seems to be no other choice than to buy one of each, and test it on your chubasco patio.

that would seem to be the only real world experiment that would hold water. your cost is minimal and you would be able to add to the haze here.... you seem to have enuf time to get some real data....

monoloco - 5-13-2012 at 07:35 AM

Currently at Costco in Cabo San Lucas they are selling 11 watt (75 watt equivalent) par 20 LED's, they are very high quality, (Cree emitters) very bright and a really nice spectrum of light. I have two of them and am really happy with the light they put out. I think they were about 450 pesos each. Also, I was at the Home Depot and they had the full suite of Phillips LED bulbs, mr16, gu10, par 20, etc.

Udo - 5-13-2012 at 12:32 PM

I also was a skeptic with the brightness of each bulb. Plus I bought some that are available at Lowes.
My investment was about $40.00 just to find out that I really liked the way the super bright LED's shined.
The cool white was fairly bright, and the warm white was mostly white with a yellowish tint which gave a nice ambient lighting. I read up on many RV forums before I decided on which to buy.
Quote:
Originally posted by oladulce
Quote:
Originally posted by Udo
By the way, while on the 12 volt subject.

There are two brightness levels: cool white and warm white. I used cool white for reading areas and warm white for ambient lighting. The bulbs were all 15 LED puck lights that replaced the G4 incandescent bulbs.



I still have 15 interior recessed lights to buy PAR20 LED bulbs for and (at a cost of $450 investment for these dimmable bulbs) I've been stalling because i can't decide whether to buy Earth LEDs "warm" or "cool".

I've never seen PAR LEDs in person and the online photos which show the difference between the light quality of the 2 varies widely. Some label their bulbs "warm" between 2800-4000 kelvin and some "cool" range from 4000-6000 K. That's a wide range within each category.

The photos of Some "warm" bulbs are way too yellow for my taste, and some of the "cool" bulbs remind me of morgue lighting. I'd like to find a bulb that's similar to the light quality of a PAR halogen- crisp white but not cold blue.

A 30 day return policy from a US merchant doesn't do much good after we return to Mexico so I've got pressure to shop wisely so the bulbs don't end up on ebay or cluttering our garage like some of my other poor choices:no:

Someday I'd like to switch out the fixtures or bulbs in our trailer and camper and I'll check out superbrightled again. thanks

LED's

bajaguy - 5-13-2012 at 12:47 PM

http://tinyurl.com/7fb5mwa

[Edited on 5-13-2012 by bajaguy]