Replacement LED lighting review
A couple of years ago I used the self adhesive flexible strip smd LEDs quite extensively when building my camper. These were an inexpensive eBay product bought in a roll of 5 metres, the LEDs themselves were of the waterproof type encased in a clear medium.
I used them just stuck onto surfaces as well as converting a couple of Fluoro lights with them.
Unfortunately the promise of X thousand hours usage has not panned out. Many of the LEDs have failed - in groups of three, suggesting it is the embedded diodes which have failed. Some no longer work, some flicker on & off. All of them seem less bright than they were when new. They have not had a great deal of use. All in all very disappointing.
Living with decreasing light has been manageable, but living with flickering lights was giving me the sh*ts .......... so I decided it was time to replace them. I’m not sure what size LEDs they were, probably 3020’s or 3528’s (the bigger the number the bigger the LED). I decided something brighter would be the go. Since I bought them the ‘standard’ moved on to the next generation 5050 LEDs which were noticably brighter, & these are what I thought I’d get, except this time I decided to buy a rigid light bar instead of the cheaper flexible, in the hope that they’ll last better.
However I came across an ebay seller specialising in larger & brighter 7020 LEDs, built on a rigid strip & supplied in an aluminium housing with a pearl diffuser so decided to give them a go. They arrived (from WA) very quickly & well packaged in a rigid triangular section cardboard box a couple of days ago. I bought 1 x 1metre & 2 x 500mm. All the same - any length could easily be cut to shorter lengths if required & a couple of wires soldered onto the cut sections. (As supplied the wires are already soldered on for the length bought).
I fitted the 1 metre light inside the pod today. Easy to do, I used a surface mount household light switch (because that was what I had) & attached the light to the pod roof with about 3” of 3M VHB double sided tape after cleaning the surfaces with solvent. The ad’s weren’t joking these lights are bright, very bright, but not dazzling because of the diffuser. Obviously I can’t know how well they will last but on the basis of light output per X length I can highly recommend them. Power consumption for the 1 metre light is of course higher than those they replaced but nevertheless is a very reasonable 1.4 amps at a nominal 12v.
These are the type I bought - I found the seller was very amenable in supplying me with what I wanted, which differed a bit from any of his advertised packages, & also combined postage so only one lot of postage required.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2x-LED-12v-rigid-strip-Light-1m-7020-waterproof-camping-caravan-marine-solar-/151677735288?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item2350b 29178
He now also sells even brighter 8520 LED’s which I might use for area lighting in our shed dwelling run off the mains via 12v adaptors
No connection to seller other than being a satisfied customer.
