- Feb 24, 2013
- 13,039
- 101,362
- Funster No
- 24,833
- MH
- Hymer S800
- Exp
- not long enough
Now this would have been so much better with photos, but I only set out to do a simple bulb change, or so I thought
Beside our bathroom door we a full height light, totally useless and a massive drain on amps, so today I investigated updating it to LED
First problem was getting at the bulb itself, the opaque cover is a very tight fit but that is all it is, we started at the bottom just in case we did any damage that would not be so obvious, but once started the centre plastic piece came out quite easily
On mine the light is from an outdated rope style light, very dim and really not worth turning on, other than to give a faint night light if wanted maybe
The end of the rope light disappears through a hole at the floor only just bigger than the rope, a slight pull on it and the rope came out leaving behind the critical power supply part completely unreachable
We tried removing various drawers and panels that we could but got nowhere, luckily I had a good firend staying who has more than enough skill to handle tools, to my credit I did make the suggestion, but we had to cut a hole in the chipboard backing, (50mm hole saw)always knowing that it would be covered by the light unit when reattached (BTW we had removed the whole fitting by now anyway, you could actually go right through the back of the fitting and the chipboard but not really know where the cables might be
Then although very tight we could get just enough access to the power cable to remake it and attach a length of LED strip, We went up one side and back down the other and now have a light worth turning on
being aware that some LED's are polarity sensitive we connected red to brown and black to blue, it didn't work, HYmer had wired the original back to front, the brown is negative blue positive, that will be EU standardising for you
job well jobbed, just the rope lights round the top of the cabinets to attempt at some time
done the fluorescent above the cooker / sink a few weeks ago, really pleased with that, but have decided not to do the fluorescent below cabinet over bench seat next to sink, it has a dimmer facility that I have only just worked out how to use properly today, but the dimmer switch would not go well with the LED strip, not found one that will dim yet (got ordinary bulbs not strips or reels though) but maybe haven't looked very well, we rarely use that light as it has a downlighter either side of it
Beside our bathroom door we a full height light, totally useless and a massive drain on amps, so today I investigated updating it to LED
First problem was getting at the bulb itself, the opaque cover is a very tight fit but that is all it is, we started at the bottom just in case we did any damage that would not be so obvious, but once started the centre plastic piece came out quite easily
On mine the light is from an outdated rope style light, very dim and really not worth turning on, other than to give a faint night light if wanted maybe
The end of the rope light disappears through a hole at the floor only just bigger than the rope, a slight pull on it and the rope came out leaving behind the critical power supply part completely unreachable
We tried removing various drawers and panels that we could but got nowhere, luckily I had a good firend staying who has more than enough skill to handle tools, to my credit I did make the suggestion, but we had to cut a hole in the chipboard backing, (50mm hole saw)always knowing that it would be covered by the light unit when reattached (BTW we had removed the whole fitting by now anyway, you could actually go right through the back of the fitting and the chipboard but not really know where the cables might be
Then although very tight we could get just enough access to the power cable to remake it and attach a length of LED strip, We went up one side and back down the other and now have a light worth turning on
being aware that some LED's are polarity sensitive we connected red to brown and black to blue, it didn't work, HYmer had wired the original back to front, the brown is negative blue positive, that will be EU standardising for you
job well jobbed, just the rope lights round the top of the cabinets to attempt at some time
done the fluorescent above the cooker / sink a few weeks ago, really pleased with that, but have decided not to do the fluorescent below cabinet over bench seat next to sink, it has a dimmer facility that I have only just worked out how to use properly today, but the dimmer switch would not go well with the LED strip, not found one that will dim yet (got ordinary bulbs not strips or reels though) but maybe haven't looked very well, we rarely use that light as it has a downlighter either side of it