# Building a 12 volt LED light for the bathroom



## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

I have 12 volt lights that I built from camper overhead lights I added Led bulbs and a pull string to
and they worked out great. They give off plenty of light but not really bright like a 70 watt bulb.
I'm going to replace the one in my bathroom with something brighter.

As my solar system grows I'm switching over to using it more and more I hope soon
that's all I use is solar power for all the lights and all the lights in the basement.
Along with TV computer and stuff like that. I'm using

I picked some 9watt 12 bulbs that are really bright. I was going to mount it in small round kitchen 
light with a pull string but some of the 12 volt bulbs are bigger than a regular bulb

NOTE: The more watts a 12 volt bulb has the bigger the bulb is. 
The bulb I'm using is called a 12 watt bulb it's really bright --

I don't know why they call it a 12 watt bulb it only pulls .6 of an amp. That should be .6x12v=7.2 watts

You can see the problem with it fitting. 


So I decided to open up one of the lights and see if there was anything in there I could work with.
There was. 


I found a flat round disc with the leds mounted on it. 


If you go back up and look the part the bulb screws into you will see that's what I used for a base
to mount the round disc on it is made of something that looks sort of ceramic I wanted to have a 
space under the disc to keep it cool. Leds don't give off much heat but better safe than sorry 


I tried to get a picture to show you how bright this light is but my camera isn't working just right
and it does don'r respond well to anything that giving off a bright light.
The cover that came on the led light bulb held back some light but it mad it a soft comfortable light.
Without the cover the light is very very bright but harsh. But the glass that covers it now is
designed to brake up the light so it works out well.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

I tried this out last night I can't beleve I get this much light from 7-9 watts.
This will save a lot of battery power at night when we have the lights on.
I might be taking down my other 12 volt lights a replace them with these.

These are bright enough to replace the regular lights that I usually run 
with the help of a inverter

I'm getting 850-900 lumens from this one light
I'm going to build a few of these and use them for my everyday lights


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

Very nice!

You took off the light diffuser, which is intended to disperse and dampen the output. It serves no other purpose, so discarding it is no big deal.
If you lightly dusted the inside of the fixture's globe, you could recreate the diffused light output.
I'm glad it worked out well for you!


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## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

I'm always amazed at how innovative folks are here! Neat idea.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Great job Budget! You amaze me sometimes.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

I have lux meter that measures how many lumans a bulb gives off. I don't know exactly how to use it so
I just set a 70 watt old school bulb and the light I built the same distance from the meter to see if they
were close to the same amount of light. The light I built that only uses 7 watts 
Kicked the 70 watts butt. yea,, I'm going to be pulling down my camper lights
and install these in every room. I could run 10 lights brighter than a old school 70watt for only 73 Watts?
Saving that much load to light the house puts me that much closer to being able to have refrigeration. 

I'll let you guys know how it works out


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## James m (Mar 11, 2014)

You said you're using a computer on battery? If you have a laptop pick up a car charger for it. Instead of converting DC to AC then back to DC you can go straight DC to DC. Saves that much more but only works in a laptop. If you are running a desktop, you poor guy lol.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

James makes a valid point. Desktop power supplies are rated up to 600W for a standard one, and up to 1000W for the higher end models that use high end graphics cards. I wouldn't try to run such a power hog on a solar system that could be put to better use.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

James m said:


> You said you're using a computer on battery? If you have a laptop pick up a car charger for it. Instead of converting DC to AC then back to DC you can go straight DC to DC. Saves that much more but only works in a laptop. If you are running a desktop, you poor guy lol.


No I think I'm Ok I have a 1500 watt pure sound wave inverter that powers all the lights
and small stuff. Why am I a poor guy for having a desk top?


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

I have three desktops and a laptop. One for DOS, and the other three run Linux.


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## James m (Mar 11, 2014)

I would assume the desktop and monitor would just use more electricity. The actual desktop mostly runs off of 12 volt on the inside. The power supply takes 120v down to 12v 5.5v and about 3v I think. I was thinking efficiency.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

28 DD batteries and a constant state charger running a pure sine wave inverter and I hardly notice when the power goes out.. for 72 hours.

Now THAT'S efficiency!


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