LED Reading Lights
Submitted: Wednesday, Nov 22, 2006 at 21:15
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Noosa Fox
Having a wife who likes to read a book at night when she goes to bed, while I nod off to sleep, I used to find the halogen reading light in the caravan a little annoying, so several years ago we changed the globes to LED and found the reading quality good and disturbance from the light minimal.
I should have thought about it earlier, but recently while at Bunnings I saw some 12 volt halogen lights that operate through a transformer from 240 volt power. I purchased one and set it up above my wife's side of the bed but fitted an LED globe in place of the halogen.
Now at home she can have the same low spreading reading light while I can go to sleep.
I thought other couples may be in the same situation and like to try it at home, the same as they have it in their caravans.
Brian
Reply By: Flipp'n Lorry - Thursday, Nov 23, 2006 at 16:39
Thursday, Nov 23, 2006 at 16:39
Yes, a good idea, we have a number of 12v LED's fitted in our home.
For the benefit of others, you are actually lucky that it worked when you swapped the bulb over to LED - most 12v downlights in a domestic situation come with a small electronic (ie transistorised circuitry) transformer, and when you put a LED bulb in, there is a momentary flicker and then nothing. That is because the transformer requires a minimum current drain to operate, and LED's simply don't draw enough power.
If you have that problem, you need to swap out the transformer for an iron-core transformer (bascially the traditional design) to successfully power the LED.
I am not actually a great Bunnings fan but, in this case, the fact that the package came with the older design transformer is probably why you were able to install it so easily.
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