My L.E.D. interior lights

[Bob86ZZ4]

I'm switching over all my interior flourescent lights to l.e.d. type lights. I like the light pretty good. Better than the flourescent for me. My wife doesn't like them because they do flicker just slightly when the water pump comes on. I think the flourescent ones did that but not as noticeable. I tried to take a couple before/after pics. Don't know if they'll show up very good. Let's try. All pics were taken while my truck is inside with all other lights off, no windows in my storage condo either so it's a very dark room. The flash was turned off on my camera too.

Here's the living room with only two of the fixtures on:

Flourescent:

L.E.D.:

Then I took before/after pointed down to the floor trying to show the difference at floor level.

Flourescent:

L.E.D.:

All the pics are a bit blurry because I wasn't using flash and hand held the camera.

 

[#90-GTSC]

How much costed? How much work?

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

Dick, first off thanks a ton for coming to Road America and hanging out with us. That was great to meet you and very nice of you.

I got these lights from Camping World. They have 36 diodes and are supposedly 350 lumens. Daylight 5500 degree or something. Double pancake they call them. They're a bit smaller footprint than the two tube fixtures I took out. So they also sell a plastic base plate thingy bezel that fits behind to make them almost the same size. I got those since I have the padded vinyl and the old lights left a mark. I got them "on sale" for $40 each. Now I just looked at their web site and found them here: Double Pancake LED Light Fixture - Diamond Distribution Group Llc 52430 - LED Lighting - Camping World

"on sale" for $56.69. Huh? I don't know how they figure their prices. I'd just keep checking and when they get below $40 buy.

It's kind of hard to see the difference in my crappy pictures. But, they are a different color and brighter. And they don't use any power I guess, compared to flourescents.

Very easy to install for me. I just unscrewed the old ones and pulled them down. Cut the black and white wires. Used crimp on butt connectors to attach the new wires. Screwed them back up. Takes a few minutes per light.

 

[#90-GTSC]

Dick, first off thanks a ton for coming to Road America and hanging out with us. That was great to meet you and very nice of you.

You're quite welcome. Glad to see that Eric did well.

Thanks for the info on the lights.

 

[#90-GTSC]

I'm switching over all my interior flourescent lights to l.e.d. type lights. I like the light pretty good. Better than the flourescent for me. My wife doesn't like them because they do flicker just slightly when the water pump comes on. I think the flourescent ones did that but not as noticeable.

Is it possible that lights and the water pump are on the same circuit? Of that the wire for the pump might be undersized? Or is the flicker phenomena inherent in 12 volt electricity?

 

[Doc Weaver]

My LED ceiling lights don't flicker anytime.

 

[AKat777]

I bought my first LED light strip for my truck tonight. It tosses quite a bit of light for a 23w usage. 3-4 of these might light up the whole place quite well.

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

I think I should maybe run a much larger guage wire to the water pump and see if that solves the problem.

 

[Oscarvan-TC]

Many electrical quirks are the result of poor ground......

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

So would you suspect the ground for the water pump, or the lights? I guess I'd lean toward the pump since there are 11 lights. That's a lot of grounds to look for. And I never would be able to get to them since they're all behind wall panels. Oh well. I guess I should run a larger hot wire and a new/larger ground wire to the pump since that should be relatively easy to do.

 

[Oscarvan-TC]

The pump or, most often, the battery itself.

 

[Dragonslayer140]

Bob, if all the lights are affected, it would more than likely be an issue with the pump or its wiring. unlikely that all of the lights would have bad grounding. Making sure that all connections to the pump are tight, and the correct size wire (when in doubt go one size bigger). Make sure if crimp and or spade terminals are used they are securely crimped. LED lamps are fairly sensitive to voltage change, and a slight drop in voltage from the pump coming on can cause them to pulse.

Motors inherently produce a magnetic field, this can cause interference on radios, and sensitive electronics. since incandescent lamps are a simple resistance load they are very resistant to interference, LED lamps are actually diodes,(some LED fixtures have a built in filter, some do not) and will more easily be affected by motors. florescent are somewhere in the middle. If checking and upgrading the pump wire does not fix it, you could try a capacitor across the input wires at the pump, this will work as a small battery of sorts to absorb some of the interference. you can also find Ferrite EMI Suppression cores online for a couple of bucks, these just snap in place around the power wires, you will see them on computer cords, and some power tools.

Good luck.

Dave

 

[Doc Weaver]

You are right on target Dave (DragonSlayer)

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

Wow, sounds like good advice to me. I can't get to my rig until at least a week from now so I'll just have to review this thread when I get to it. I'll post my findings.