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Interior Lighting
Revised on Saturday, March 24, 2007 by Herb
12 Volt Quartz Halogen Spotlights
The stock lighting from Lazy Daze for the rear of the coach, and over the dinette is standard 15w? fluorescent fixtures. They are incredibly efficient in terms of producing the maximum amount of lumens for a given amount of wattage.
However, there are times, when a more localized light source is desired. Either from the practical necessity of one partner wanting to read when sleeping in the rear couches converted to a King Size bed, or purely for the aesthetics of dining under incandescent spot lighting.
I initially researched small brass quartz halogen spotlights the type of which are frequently used in upscale boats and perhaps Born Free motorhomes. However, at about $80 per fixture, I soon looked elsewhere. Still, if money is no object, these fixtures are very appealing.
Home Depot provided a very cost effective alternative. At about $30 for 3, I bought the 10? watt 12 AC quartz halogen light fixtures. These were the same wattage as the fluorescent fixtures. While they do not provide the same volume of light, the quality of light is much improved for task lighting.
The bulbs don't care whether they are powered by 12 AC, or 12 DC so it was a simple manner to tap off the 12 volt source to the fluorescent lights and wire them in series with an external switch next to the speakers in the rear of the coach, and above the dinette. It is good wiring practice to fuse the connection where you take the 12v to avoid any possible problems in case of a short.
Nowadays, I would investigate whether anyone has used white LED's in reasonable fixture. If you are really concerned about saving power, they might be the answer, although I would expect that it would cost a lot more for comparable light output.
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Our motorhome came with a zillion of those light fixtures, with 20 watt G4 halogens.
The halogens get really hot, and use tons of power.
I converted them all to leds, bought the bulbs on ebay. watch the "tempterature, 3400 to 4000 is good, anything higher will be very blue. The ones I bought shipped free from hong kong, like $30 for 20 bulbs?
I like em a lot. So do our batteries.
Jim
It's been on the list of things to do for some time. I'm glad you gave me the tip about the color temperature.
LED lighting is far cheaper now and every single lightbulb and/or fixture should be replaced with them!
Hi Michael,
You are of course correct.. And while at this point I have indeed replaced every incandescent lightbulb with it's equivalent LED bulb, I have neglected to update this page on the website. Thank you for reminding me.
FWIW, I haven't done the fluorescent 15w bulbs since I only really use them on shore power.
Safe Travels,
Herb