I've had one of these lights in my bathroom for a couple of years:
It's a TLC Polo bulkhead light with a 4-pin 17w 2d fluorescent tube in it. It's not exactly brilliant in terms of aesthetics but it does the job.
Finally last week it packed in. Assuming it was the lamp, I duly purchased a replacement:
I fitted it and then decided that it was in fact probably the driver electrics that had packed in instead. Oops.
Looking at the large box of electronics inside the light that seemed to now be proven non-functional, I started thinking (often a mistake that, at least where I'm concerned). I decided that since all the rest of the lights in my house were now LED, I might just as well investigate an LED replacement for this bulkhead light as well.
The lowest power LED bulkhead I could see from TLC-direct was this one:
That's a 12w LED, and it was on special offer. Of course, none of the mounting holes matched the old unit (what did I expect).
There were a selection of 'knock-outs' for the screw holes in various positions, however they all turned out to be 'drill outs' as try as I might I couldn't get them to 'knock out' as I have on similar fittings in the past. These holes were skillfully positioned such that the chuck of the drill was sure to impact on the rubber seal that gives the fitting its IP54. So once I realised this, I decided to very carefully drill a 2mm hole one way (inside the unit, where the knock-out had a guiding reinforced surround, then widen to 5mm drilling from the top of the unit to avoid damaging anything when the drill bit lurched through. The kind of irritating stuff you end up doing when you DIY anything, all standard.
But I digress.
Once I got this thing mounted on the ceiling in place of the old one I finally switched it on.
I guess that seeing the light from a standard Philips 15w bayonet LED must have failed to prepare me for what I now saw. This thing is bright. I mean, not nicely bright I mean so bright that I virtually need sunglasses for a bathroom visit. So bright that going back into the rest of the house requires some vision adjustment time before I can see properly!
Thank goodness for the shaver socket light, it now sees a lot more use.
I suppose this is all due to the fact that unlike with the 2d bulb all the LEDs are on a PCB plate that is pointing down. Nothing is going anywhere else than into the bathroom, which is small.
Now the question is what wattage resistor I can put in series with the LEDs? The AC-DC converter helpfully says it outputs 22 -> 45 volts. WTF does that mean, I wonder? Or do I go for spraying something on the inside of the diffuser? I'm reluctant to modify a standard light fitting, even if there is bags of space inside the fitting and it's a simple circuit, and LEDs don't make much heat, and it's the LV part, blah blah blah. But then there's the time. I might just end up living with it.
Damned nuisance.
It's a TLC Polo bulkhead light with a 4-pin 17w 2d fluorescent tube in it. It's not exactly brilliant in terms of aesthetics but it does the job.
Finally last week it packed in. Assuming it was the lamp, I duly purchased a replacement:
I fitted it and then decided that it was in fact probably the driver electrics that had packed in instead. Oops.
Looking at the large box of electronics inside the light that seemed to now be proven non-functional, I started thinking (often a mistake that, at least where I'm concerned). I decided that since all the rest of the lights in my house were now LED, I might just as well investigate an LED replacement for this bulkhead light as well.
The lowest power LED bulkhead I could see from TLC-direct was this one:
That's a 12w LED, and it was on special offer. Of course, none of the mounting holes matched the old unit (what did I expect).
There were a selection of 'knock-outs' for the screw holes in various positions, however they all turned out to be 'drill outs' as try as I might I couldn't get them to 'knock out' as I have on similar fittings in the past. These holes were skillfully positioned such that the chuck of the drill was sure to impact on the rubber seal that gives the fitting its IP54. So once I realised this, I decided to very carefully drill a 2mm hole one way (inside the unit, where the knock-out had a guiding reinforced surround, then widen to 5mm drilling from the top of the unit to avoid damaging anything when the drill bit lurched through. The kind of irritating stuff you end up doing when you DIY anything, all standard.
But I digress.
Once I got this thing mounted on the ceiling in place of the old one I finally switched it on.
I guess that seeing the light from a standard Philips 15w bayonet LED must have failed to prepare me for what I now saw. This thing is bright. I mean, not nicely bright I mean so bright that I virtually need sunglasses for a bathroom visit. So bright that going back into the rest of the house requires some vision adjustment time before I can see properly!
Thank goodness for the shaver socket light, it now sees a lot more use.
I suppose this is all due to the fact that unlike with the 2d bulb all the LEDs are on a PCB plate that is pointing down. Nothing is going anywhere else than into the bathroom, which is small.
Now the question is what wattage resistor I can put in series with the LEDs? The AC-DC converter helpfully says it outputs 22 -> 45 volts. WTF does that mean, I wonder? Or do I go for spraying something on the inside of the diffuser? I'm reluctant to modify a standard light fitting, even if there is bags of space inside the fitting and it's a simple circuit, and LEDs don't make much heat, and it's the LV part, blah blah blah. But then there's the time. I might just end up living with it.
Damned nuisance.
