light fixture conversion

[KBesh]

Has anyone had experience converting a 110 volt ac residential light fixture to 12v dc LED for installation in my 94 airstream?

[KBesh]

That must be a no.

[aquinob]

Not true. I just did. This fixture came from HD, is a stainless finish and uses G9 base 110V halogens. I rewired it so it will work with a three setting switch (center, then outside, then all three). I'm waiting on 3 g9 based 12v LED bulbs to come in from Amazon to finish it off. Lamp ran around 50 something bucks, not too bad overall.

[1973Nadia]

I would love to know how you rewired the lamp. Would you mind sharing? I have wanted to do this for a while!

[aquinob]

Initially all I did was to separate the white and black wires in the back and then wire the two outside lights in parallel together and the middle one by itself. When I got the LED bulbs I found they were quite a bit larger than the original halogens. I had to move the lamp holders so that they faced sideways to accommodate the big bulbs otherwise they would have poked above the top. The light distribution on the glass shades wasnt as nice as I would have liked, but it worked. I can always add some more strip led's to fix that.

And speaking of glass, I knew better but I did nothing to hold the glass shades in. We took the trailer out last weekend for its second outing since I got it and by the time we got to the camp about 30 miles away, all the glass had popped out and broken into many pieces. So my plan now is to get some fairly thin white translucent plastic and fit it in where the glass was. Shouldn't be too hard to do.

[reinergirl]

Originally Posted by 1973Nadia

I would love to know how you rewired the lamp. Would you mind sharing? I have wanted to do this for a while!

I may be misunderstanding here but the lamp itself doesn't need to be rewired. Providing the socket will accept a 12 volt bulb, that is. A lamp doesn't differentiate between a 12 volt DC and 110 AC source.

My 63 overlander has two sockets for each fixture, one was attached to 110 wiring, the other to 12 volt. The sockets and wiring were identical, only the bulbs are different.

I know there are some folk on these forums well versed in electrical. Hopefully they'll chime in and confirm that 110 fixtures can easily be converted to 12 volt by simply using a 12 volt bulb and attaching to a 12 volt source!

[KBesh]

Ok, so I can buy any light fixture I want. Most use a medium base bulb. Looking at the price ($50 & up) of LED, medium based, bulbs I was worried there was some kind of converter built into the bulb base so it could be used in a 110 socket. It makes sense that ant fixture would work its just the bulbs that have me messed up.

[Ahab]

Lowes or Home Depot have LED bulbs with standard bases.

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[aquinob]

Originally Posted by KBesh

Ok, so I can buy any light fixture I want. Most use a medium base bulb. Looking at the price ($50 & up) of LED, medium based, bulbs I was worried there was some kind of converter built into the bulb base so it could be used in a 110 socket. It makes sense that ant fixture would work its just the bulbs that have me messed up.

Just keep in mind that all your lights run on 12v DC and most fixtures meant for home use run on 110v AC. What I did with this light is separate the wires and then run it on 12V. The G9 bulbs are available as 110v Halogens and 12v LEDs so this fixture was fine. There are other bases like GU10's that also have both 110v and 12v leds available. I'm not sure about a standard screw type base fixture that is common on most home lights. Whatever fixture you buy, verify that what the base the bulbs have and that there are 12v equivalents for it.

You could of course wire it into the 110v circuit, but you would then have to have a switch to turn it on/off unless there was one as part of the fixture. And it wouldn't work unless you are plugged into shore power. HTH.

[aquinob]

Here is one example of a standard screw base bulb that runs on 12v:
Amazon.com: LEDwholesalers E26 Screw Base 12 Volt AC/DC 5.6 Watt RV Camper Marine Low Voltage LED Light Bulb, Warm White 1016WW: Home & Kitchen

[aquinob]

Originally Posted by reinergirl

I may be misunderstanding here but the lamp itself doesn't need to be rewired. Providing the socket will accept a 12 volt bulb, that is. A lamp doesn't differentiate between a 12 volt DC and 110 AC source.

My 63 overlander has two sockets for each fixture, one was attached to 110 wiring, the other to 12 volt. The sockets and wiring were identical, only the bulbs are different.

I know there are some folk on these forums well versed in electrical. Hopefully they'll chime in and confirm that 110 fixtures can easily be converted to 12 volt by simply using a 12 volt bulb and attaching to a 12 volt source!

Yes. Wires are wires. Depending on the fixture and bulbs, you may not need the ground wire and you may need to verify polarity (none with AC). Also, if there is a multi-position switch that is used to turn lights on in a 1, 2 and then 3 light fashion, you would need to separate the individual lights so you could accomplish that. Most home fixtures have em all wired together.