Florescent lights April 29, 2020, 03:31:26 pm Hey all, I searched, but didn't find anything recent or exactly to answer my question. I have a 1990 mid bath. 3 of my florescent fixtures do not work. I took one completely out and there was electricity to the fixture, so I'm betting the other 2 are the same way. Are there any direct replacements for these? At 19 + inches I'm not finding much. And I would love to replace them with LED fixtures while I'm at it. I really like these Starlight fixtures, you can add 12 volts, nightlight, dimmers, etc. Brilliant Light 3003 Dual Dome- 150 LMS LED - Starlights IncEven though they aren't the right size they might be worth it. I figure wood and molding to finish off the hole. Since it is a 90, the hole where the swamp cooler was taken out is already finished with wood. What are your thoughts?
Re: Florescent lights Reply #1 – April 29, 2020, 04:34:46 pm Not too long ago, someone posted about LED tubes that were 12V replacements for fluorescent tubes. The only wiring needed was to bypass the ballast. That might be a simple solution.Ken F in NM
Re: Florescent lights Reply #2 – April 29, 2020, 04:41:21 pm The OP might want to try M4 LEDs; good products and customer service.M4 LED Products
Re: Florescent lights Reply #3 – April 29, 2020, 05:12:33 pm Hi Faren. I assume you've swapped tubes around, so that leaves the ballasts (electronic) to have failed. (I have a few removed ballasts, free for the shipping.) I replaced all of my original LD florescent tubes with M4 Natural white LED replacements. LED Replacement for 18" T8 Tube Lights I find the NW LED's match the Cool White original tubes perfectly. The only way you can tell them apart, is the LED's light instantly. They also use about 1/3 the power. The M4 at 960 lumens as compared to the Starlight's you mentioned at 600 lumen. And 4500K, a little bit 'whiter' than the 4200K of the Starlight's. If you have the SunRay fixtures that my '99 LD came with, it will retain your original 'look', and save you from having to do woodwork to patch things. RonB
Re: Florescent lights Reply #4 – April 29, 2020, 05:18:38 pm Search this forum for "led fluorescent replacement". Lots of threads over the years on a few different ways to approach it.Art
Re: Florescent lights Reply #5 – April 29, 2020, 06:11:16 pm M4s web site does not seem to be working the way I rembeber it, so this link may answer some of your questions. LED replacement for RV flourescent - Penelusuran Google
Re: Florescent lights Reply #6 – April 29, 2020, 06:35:53 pm Steve, I just checked again, and the site link for M4 works for me. Don't know....
Re: Florescent lights Reply #7 – April 29, 2020, 09:01:04 pm I replaced all of my fluorescents with natural white leds from m4products.com. I originally had him send me one of each color to be able to see what I liked better. I liked the NW the best and he allowed me to return the other two. This was several years ago, I dont know if Steve still allows that. I removed all of the ballasts and rewired the light fixture. Since then I have replaced all lights in the RV both inside and out with leds. The only two I havent done is the headlights and I havent found a kit that will fit. 2 Likes
Re: Florescent lights Reply #8 – April 29, 2020, 10:00:19 pm "...site link for M4 works for me"There was a time when you went to their home page you could scroll down to where is said "Tube Lights", click on it and you could see the tubes in question. Now it does not work that way and no matter what I did I could not find the 'tube lights' or the instructions on how to make the conversion. I had no problems such as that when I converted all of my fluorescents to LED several years ago.
Re: Florescent lights Reply #9 – April 29, 2020, 10:44:13 pm Thanks for the info everyone. I did swap bulbs around, that's how I found out only 3 weren't working instead of 4. Just watched a video about taking out the ballast, looks straight forward enough. Right now I'm leaning that way since it wouldn't change the look. I might have thrown away the fixture I took out though. Or it might be somewhere in the garage.