Odds and Ends
It’s cold and rainy now, so I keep working on the little things I can do indoors. Progress seems slow to nonexistent, but the hours keep melting away.
I spent most of a day making my overhead light out of X-mas light LED’s. The end result is that it works fine, makes about 40W of light relative to incandescent, and draws about 1.1A, which is about 13.2W at 12V. I made it from one of the two florescent recessed ceiling lights that came with the truck when I bought it. It was burned out, and not just the bulb, so I had to do something. By comparison, the other identical light, which still has the original florescent bulb, and still works, draws about 2.2A (26.4W), and puts out about 60W of light relative to incandescent. That makes my LED lamp about 33% more efficient. I must say, that is a lot of work to save just 1 amp. I needed to do something, since the light was broken, but I can’t claim that it was cost effective, or an efficient use of my time.
My LED light is also considerably more blue, or less “warm” than the fluorescent light. I anticipated that, and mixed in 25% red, yellow, or green LED’s to try and warm it up, but it wasn’t enough. It’s not objectionable or anything, but it’s easy to see the difference when the two lights are on side by side. By the way, red plus green makes yellow in the additive color system, and yellow is what you need to warm up blue. The human eye is most sensitive to color shades around white, so getting the white balance just right can be difficult.
I made a similar LED light array for the filter module above the stove with similar specifications. I also removed the AC fan that came in the unit and replaced it with a 12V squirrel cage blower. The original design was intended to vent up through the ceiling via an 8” diameter vent, but I don’t want any more holes in my roof. I rigged it to draw air in through the filters and then exhaust it back out the front and side in the general direction of the central overhead exhaust fan which is just a few feet away. I realize that it isn’t an ideal solution but I figure if I can catch some of the tiny floating grease droplets in the filters then there will be less to stick to every other surface. It will be interesting to see if the grease gums up the blower over time.
I needed about 5 other small task lights over work surfaces, the sink, countertops, the computer nook, etc. I was planning to make those out of LED’s as well, but then I found an ideal little single tube florescent light at the local hardware store. They are 12V with provisions for internal batteries, but also have a little socket for 12V input. They draw about an amp and put out about 30W (equivalent incandescent) light so they meet the need just fine. It remains to be seen how long they will last, and how much pounding they will take, but they were cheap so I figured, why not. I can always replace them later if I want.
I also wanted reading lights for the upper and lower bunks. I found some LED type low voltage lights intended for outdoor landscape use. They have a nice cast aluminum hood and a descent reflector that makes a nice cone of light for reading. I wanted all of my lights, including these, to have switches right at the light, so I had to modify them. In this case it was just a matter of drilling out the cast aluminum hood and wiring in a small toggle switch. I also needed a small base for wall mounting. Fortunately a plastic sprinkler head and a very short length of threaded plastic pipe make a nice sturdy mount. It can twist on the pipe threads for azimuth and the head clamps and pivots up and down for elevation so it is fully adjustable. These low voltage LED lights are made for 12V AC but they seem to work fine for 12V DC.
My last hole in the roof is for the toilet flue. I made a 4.5” tube with a mounting flange out of sheet aluminum. It will bolt to the roof to create the pipe up into the flue cap which is actually a small upside down roasting pan. The actual flue pipe is 4” and will slip up inside with a little fiberglass bat jammed in between and a bead of high temp silicon to finish it off. I modified a secondary ring to cover over the flange where it mounts to the roof and will fill the area under the ring with more high temp silicone.
I have been updating the photo gallery with pictures. You can look them up under keyword “Stealth”
To be continued…
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