SargeW
Site Team
Here is a mod that I have been pondering for a while. The reading lights over the bed are stylish, but darn near useless. The incandescent bulbs are way too bright, way too hot, and burned me whenever I tried to use them (I am pretty sure that they were mounted upside down).
Diane reads in bed almost every night, but never uses the lights. She has a Kindle uses technology that doesn't need light to read. If I read in bed it is usually on my Samsung tablet. So the lights just hung there, never used. Diane had asked many times if I could alter them to provide a low level of light without being blinding. On line searches didn't come up with anything satisfactory for a reasonable price.
So I went to WalMart. In the automotive department I picked up a package of 6" 12 volt LED's. They come in various colors, but white suited my needs. I removed the fixture and found 4 wires. Two brown ones for the switch, and a red and a white for the bulb. I checked the voltage of the red and white wires with a VOM to make sure that they had 12 volts going to them, and that they were controlled by the switch. Check. I decided to cut the red and white wires, leaving enough room to reattach them at a later date, if I choose.
I twisted one end of each led lead to the end of the red and white wires. I used a butt connector to crimp them snugly together. The other end of the butt connector is not used yet. This is in case I choose to reconnect the incandescent bulb at some future time. I also bent the corner of the backing plate in one corner to allow the led wire to easily exit the back of the fixture.
With the wires secured I replaced the fixture to the wall, making sure that the black push button switch is on top of the light globe for easy access. The 6" LED strip is routed out through the bent corner to the outside of the fixture. The 6" long strip is the perfect size to fit along the edge of the existing lamp base. The LED strip has a piece of sticky tape on the back. Peel it off and stick it to the side of the lamp base.
I chose to adhere the LED strips to the outside edge of the lamp base. This way the LED's would shine and reflect off of the side window valances, and wouldn't shine into our faces if we were both in bed reading. While the LED's are pretty bright for such small lights, they produce a soft glow at the head of the bed. The other up side is that they use a fraction of the power that the incandescent bulbs did, and do not get hot.
If I want more light later on, I could pick up another pack of the LED strips and put another one on the inside edge of the both lights. But for now, this is serving the purpose nicely.
Diane reads in bed almost every night, but never uses the lights. She has a Kindle uses technology that doesn't need light to read. If I read in bed it is usually on my Samsung tablet. So the lights just hung there, never used. Diane had asked many times if I could alter them to provide a low level of light without being blinding. On line searches didn't come up with anything satisfactory for a reasonable price.
So I went to WalMart. In the automotive department I picked up a package of 6" 12 volt LED's. They come in various colors, but white suited my needs. I removed the fixture and found 4 wires. Two brown ones for the switch, and a red and a white for the bulb. I checked the voltage of the red and white wires with a VOM to make sure that they had 12 volts going to them, and that they were controlled by the switch. Check. I decided to cut the red and white wires, leaving enough room to reattach them at a later date, if I choose.
I twisted one end of each led lead to the end of the red and white wires. I used a butt connector to crimp them snugly together. The other end of the butt connector is not used yet. This is in case I choose to reconnect the incandescent bulb at some future time. I also bent the corner of the backing plate in one corner to allow the led wire to easily exit the back of the fixture.
With the wires secured I replaced the fixture to the wall, making sure that the black push button switch is on top of the light globe for easy access. The 6" LED strip is routed out through the bent corner to the outside of the fixture. The 6" long strip is the perfect size to fit along the edge of the existing lamp base. The LED strip has a piece of sticky tape on the back. Peel it off and stick it to the side of the lamp base.
I chose to adhere the LED strips to the outside edge of the lamp base. This way the LED's would shine and reflect off of the side window valances, and wouldn't shine into our faces if we were both in bed reading. While the LED's are pretty bright for such small lights, they produce a soft glow at the head of the bed. The other up side is that they use a fraction of the power that the incandescent bulbs did, and do not get hot.
If I want more light later on, I could pick up another pack of the LED strips and put another one on the inside edge of the both lights. But for now, this is serving the purpose nicely.
