Kingham - Interior Lighting

For general ‘soft’ lighting, I tend to use the warm lighting of the cooker extractor, backed up if required by the two warm spotlights above the sofa.

If I require full lighting, the three intense white circular ceiling lights are good, as is the white LED that sits above the sink (used to be under microwave before removal), or the white LED in the cab, or the white LED above the bed head.

I would like to change the white bed head, sink and cab LEDs to warm lighting, rather than the current intense white.

Has anyone done this already and if so, what or who did you use for the replacements ?

TIA

Kingham, yes I have, albeit in a Kemerton.  Changing the lighting in the van to something warmer was one of the first mods I did - living with the charmless cold-white lighting selected by AS’s designers wasn’t an option!

I retained the ceiling-mounted lights as they are only ever used on the rare occasions full illumination is required.  However the lighting fitted to the underside of the overhead lockers has been removed and replaced with warm white LED tapes, details given below.  

For the adjustable spotlights in the lounge area (ours are Lumo LED-01 fittings) I inserted coloured filters in the removable lenses to give a warmer hue to the light.  I like the design of the spotlights and they are nicely engineered, but with cold white LEDs that can’t be exchanged for warm white.  Using filters was a reasonable compromise.

In the front of the van AS had fitted a cheap looking LED strip luminaire on the underside of the over-cab space. It was too short to be useful but also protruded too far, creating a head-strike hazard.  I replaced it with a low profile, longer length LED tape to provide better light.

In selecting the LED tape I did quite a lot of research before deciding to use a supplier called Ultra Leds (ultraleds.co.uk). I chose them because their “very warm white” LED tape is well specified to give good light output (expressed in Lumens per metre) and colour temperature (expressed in Kelvin).  I avoided the higher power-consuming tapes as they would have drawn too much from the leisure battery. I opted for the product in this link:

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Rather than just stick the LED tape to the cabinetry I opted to put it in low-profile aluminium channel and cap it with a frosted diffuser strip. It gives a more professional finish and avoids relying on just the sticky tape of the LEDs.  The required parts, including discrete fixing brackets and end-caps are all available from the same supplier.  The channel I used is this one:

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Each LED tape will require a cable termination, available from the tape supplier, and a suitable switch.  For the latter I used these from Planet 12V, which matched with those fitted by AS elsewhere in the van:    

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I also decided to fit a small voltage regulator to protect each tape from any over-voltage on the 12V habitation system.  Probably overkill but I got them for a few pence when Maplin were closing down.

I didn’t find the installation difficult but I have fitted a lot of LED tape in residential property so it was well within my capability.  Alternatively you could fit off-the-shelf LED lighting strip from somewhere like Aten, such as these:  

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The pictures below show some of the installed lighting:

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The following two images show the difference between using the warmer LED tape fitted to the undersides of the top lockers and the filtered spotlights, compared to just the cold-white ceiling lights in the 2nd picture.  Not easy to capture the colours accurately using a phone camera but hopefully you get some idea of the contrast.

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Hope this helps.

Tim

I'm still tickled that the Kingham has a total of 14 (including the floor strip lights) dotted all around the living quarters.. possibly more? Is that excessive?

Same on the Kemerton, 14 switchable luminaires including the awning light, 15 if you include the wardrobe light. We use them all at various times, except the ghastly blue lights in the shower mirror and the floor level blues.  It’s a million miles away from how I started out camping in the Scouts!

Tim

@Kemerton-bath  Thank you for such a detailed response, which is exactly what I was looking for, a profusion of warm lighting. 

I’ve just returned home today and missed your reply while I was away.

I’ll update the thread once I get sorted.

@Kingham ... you’re very welcome, have fun implementing your warm lighting update.  I particularly enjoyed doing this mod as it produced such an improvement.

Tim

As a post-script to my earlier post in this thread ... I've finally got rid of the ghastly blue LEDs in the step between the cab and the lounge.  

I've been on the hunt for a suitable alternative for some time.  Most options on the market are designed for kitchen plinths and grossly over-priced but I eventually found these from Magnum Motorhomes: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I got them in warm white for just £2.50 each.  They're small and neat, only consume 0.2W, and although (inevitably) are not compatible in terms of hole size, it was easy to find a way of resolving that.  The result is a big improvement and I see that AS have moved away from blue step lights in their new van conversions.  

The only blue lights we have now are those in the shower-room mirror, but we never switch them on and I'm not planning to replace the mirror!

Tim

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Another big improvement Kemerton-bath

Some great lighting  mods there Tim , I confess we never used the blue leds around the floor step into the cab area... Funnily enough the Warwick has those same white leds that you have used and they are much more practical.  The lighting overhead was rather clinical as you say but handy when you were looking for something dropped on the floor  !

Thanks guys. We too never used the step lighting when it was blue, but now it's warm white it really adds atmosphere so we use it a lot. I hope blue lighting has had it's day, I never saw the appeal!

As a post-script to my earlier post in this thread ... I've finally got rid of the ghastly blue LEDs in the step between the cab and the lounge.  

I've been on the hunt for a suitable alternative for some time.  Most options on the market are designed for kitchen plinths and grossly over-priced but I eventually found these from Magnum Motorhomes: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I got them in warm white for just £2.50 each.  They're small and neat, only consume 0.2W, and although (inevitably) are not compatible in terms of hole size, it was easy to find a way of resolving that.  The result is a big improvement and I see that AS have moved away from blue step lights in their new van conversions.  


I really like the look of the replacement warm white lights, those blue ones are ghastly! I've ordered the replacement ones from Magnum, but what is the best way of getting to the blue ones to remove them? 


Many Thanks


Philip

Hi Philip,

There are two options and either or both will apply to your Symbol I would imagine. One option is to unfix each blue LED fitting from the black fascia of the cab step, achieved by unscrewing the plastic cap and then pulling the fitting out of the hole.  

I chose the other option, which was to remove the top of the step.  That's done by carefully peeling off the sticky wood-grain effect circles (stick them lightly to some metalwork so they can be re-applied) and removing the self-tappers. From memory I think are 5 of them. With the step-top removed it's easy to access all the wiring and swap over the LEDs. I went one stage further and unscrewed the fibreglass step riser from the floor so I could do the changeover with it out of situ.  That was just to give me the luxury of better access but it's not essential.  It did mean I could check the connections on the heater ducts though.

If your blue LEDs are the same as ours were (Lumo LED1-lowlite, see link below), you'll find that they require a larger cut-out than that needed by the LEDs from Magnum. I solved this by specifying and having made acrylic discs in gloss black with a hole drilled centrally (in effect a bespoke washer).  I found a supplier on line (see link below) that will make them to order, and at a reasonable cost of about £16 for the four. I know £4 for a plastic washer might seem OTT but I was able to specify the exact size I wanted and having found the LEDs to be so cheap I was happy to pay it.  I specified mine at 36mm outside diameter and a hole size of 15mm, but check your measurements in case they differ.  Using contact adhesive I glued the LED into the disc, then glued the disc onto the step.

I made the cable connections using sleeved & crimped connectors.  Take care to check the polarity when connecting them and if your Whale heater is underneath the step in the same way ours is, make sure you keep wiring away from anything that's going to get hot.

Finally, check the LEDs you get from Magnum are warm and not cold white, as they got it wrong initially and sent cold white.  These have a white sticker on them and the warm white LEDs have an orange sticker.  They were good to deal with though and corrected the mistake without a fuss.

Overall a straightforward mod and one which has added greatly to interior ambience.

Tim

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Many thanks for that Tim, a very useful and informative post