Replacing fluorescent tubes with Cabin Bright LED's

We have three of those 18" dual fluorescent fixtures in our motorhome, and I wanted to replace those annoying tubes with LED bulbs.  I looked at the expensive LED "tubes" that are not only expensive, but they are way too "white" for my liking, and you need to re-wire the whole fixture.

I saw the advertisement of Cabin Bright LED replacement for these fluorescent fixtures in the latest issue of Motorcoaching Magazine, and after looking at the website, I agreed these were a much better replacement than the Starbright LED "tubes".

I bought three of the Cabin Bright (cabinbright.com) to LED fixture replacements, and since these don't require re-wiring (the ballast and all wiring remains), and the Kelvin is a warmer color (3200) than the Starlight "led tubes" (4500 Kelvin), I made the purchase for a total of $142.

A breeze to install, as you leave all the existing wiring on the fixture, and just run the new wiring through the fixture hole, and connect to the existing hot and negative wires in the ceiling.  NONE of the existing fixture wiring is removed, as you cover it up with the ballast cover.  You remove the center metal ballast cover, stick down the new LED lights, replace the ballast cover, and WALA...nice light that actually works and is much less amp draw than the existing fixture.

Here are pictures of the new fixtures, and the first picture is one of the existing fixture, one sticking down the LED pads, then one of the completed fixture.

(Ugg....don't know why two of the pictures are turned wrong.  They are correct in my computer album.  You can also see my extra air conditioner I installed in place of the Fantastic Vent.) Feel free to turn you head sideways while viewing these. 

Useful information, well-documented.  Thanks for posting.

Joel

Nice job of installing, and nice report as well. Thanks!

For what its worth, there is no need to re-wire anything or remove the ballast with the Starlight or Ming led tubes, if you choose not to.  Just wire the tubes just as you did the Cabin Bright leds, i.e. run 12v power wires to the two wires that  dangle from the led tubes. There is nothing in the tube that connects through the pins at the ends - they are just mounts for the tube. And three of the Ming 18" tubes are only $123, and a 10% forum discount could have been applied if bought from rvledbulbs.com.

To minimize power waste, either unplug the ballast wires from the fixture on/off switch or simply turn the switch off. Otherwise the ballast will be using a bit of power, even though its not driving the fluorescent any more.

Saw the same in FMCA mag about Cabin Bright, and plan to place my order this week. Got my bulb order from rvledbulbs last week and have those installed. As Gary states, rvledbulbs is a great place to order bulbs.

Gary RV Roamer said:

Nice job of installing, and nice report as well. Thanks!

And three of the Ming 18" tubes are only $123, and a 10% forum discount could have been applied if bought from rvledbulbs.com.

To minimize power waste, either unplug the ballast wires from the fixture on/off switch or simply turn the switch off. Otherwise the ballast will be using a bit of power, even though its not driving the fluorescent any more.

Click to expand...

Thanks Gary.  I would have needed 6 of the Starlight tubes (2 per fixture) so that would have been $250 plus shipping.  For at least $100 less, I am really pleased with this setup and color brightness.  Also the old ballast isn't hooked to anything as the complete fixture existing wires to the ceiling were cut and replaced by the new LED wires. All old existing wiring isn't removed but just covered up by the ballast cover, and there is no power to any of the old wiring. 

Nice! Really turned out well. This LED stuff has sure found a useful home in the RV world.

Kev

I'm only using one led tube per  fixture and it's more light than two of the old fluorescents. The Revolution led tubes are 810 lumen each and don't deteriorate, whereas the fluorescents started out around 700 (each) but their output drops steadily as they age.  What are the combined lumens of the Cabin Bright package? Do they state it?

Can't get around your color preference, though. Warm white is indeed nicer than cool white, but also less bright. I've got some other led bulbs that are lower color temperature, but the led tubes just come in the

Shipping would have been free on the led tubes (order over $100 ships free).

An alternative is to install a couple of led strips in each fixture, as many as you like to get whatever brightness is desired. Flexible Led strips are available in several color temperatures (or even red, green or blue) and have adhesive backs, so you can have it your way.

From the Cabinbright.com website:

Below is a comparison between the standard fluorescent tube replacement (Phillips), The LED replacement which are contained in ?tube type? replacements where you have to cut the wires to the ballast and essentially rewire the lighting fixture (StarLights), and the easy to install  Cabin Bright Replacement Alternative.

If you think about how a fluorescent tube works, it emits light 360 degrees around a cylinder effectively transmitting half the light up into the fixture and the other half into the room needing the light. The Cabin Bright solution uses 120? LED?s that beams  all of its light directly into the room providing at least 33% more light where you need it.

For the 18" Fluorescent 2-tube replacement:

Watts: OEM Tube 30, Starlight 21.2, C.B. 12
Amps:  OEM Tube 3.7, Starlight 1.71, CB 1
Voltage: OEM 12V, Starlight 9-25V, CB 10-30V
Brightness (lumens) OEM 1300, Starlights 1620, CB 1536
Color Temp (Kelvin) OEM 6500k, Starlights 4500K, CB 3200k

End of the Cabin Bright data.  If I were to do it over, I would have gone with the FLED12R-144 replacements (six pads) instead of the FLED18R-192 replacements (eight pads), as the "eight pads" of LEDS seem bright, and I could get by with "six pads" instead.

Also, as you can tell by my pictures, the "pads" are spread out in the fixture, performing a uniformed look, and not on one side or the other.

Thanks for posting the specs.  I see all the numbers are the total for two tubes (or the C.B. equivalent), so that is the net power for the fixture. I see they give the lumens for the OEM fluorescent as 1300 (650 each) rather that the 700 I mentioned above. That's probably right - I was going by memory and that's not so reliable any more!

I agree - you don't need anywhere near as many lumens to replace the fluorescent. By the time you replace them, the tubes are probably down to 500-550 each and still plenty bright, so 800-1000 lumens for the replacement led is usualy plenty.

Excellent product I was not aware of. Thank you so much for this invaluable information. At least it is to me!

Looked at this thread today and went to the Cabin Bright website. Cabin Bright now has a "X" factor LED. a continuous circuit board instead of the various number of pads. Anybody tried these? Would seem that the light may be distributed more evenly, but don't know.

I am a little hesitant to post this response because I do not want to discourage using a site sponser's product but the following is a much less expensive alternative.

I posted this information before and will just post the link to the previous thread.

I used LED strips for 12 fixtures at a cost of about $16 per fixture.  This was not an original idea of mine. I give credit to Rich, (Wanderman)

Here is a picture and then the link.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk121/HueyPilotVN/20140825_130248.jpg


http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,63517.msg659592.html#msg659592

I agree that these "kits" are less and less relevant due to the changing LED marketplace.  They were of interest a few years ago when LEDs weren't so common.

I used these stick-on LEDs for lots of under-cabinet lighting in my MH: http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/top-emitting/custom-length-high-power-led-flexible-light-strip/1460/#/tab/Specifications 

These are high power strips rated at 380 lumens/foot for warm white (3250K) so an 18" strip to replace a standard fluorescent tube would be ~$16 and would produce ~520 lumens.  The only accessory that's needed is a $2 clip so you don't have to solder to the LED strip (if you prefer to solder, be my guest).  You can reduce the price a bit if you buy a roll of the lights and cut it to length yourself.

ok here is my question. my light fixtures have  the same white cover that I have seen in most of these pics. it seems to have shrunken to the point where they are just barely hanging on. to any of these kits offered have those in them or are there replacements for those?

No, none of the kits I'm aware of include replacement of the diffuser, but you may be able to buy one from Thinlite.

k thanks

Just replaced mine, 3 for about $40. Several places on line to purchase Thinlite lens make sure you verify your light fixture model before ordering.

Just finished a complete LED retrofit of my 2002 Monaco Knight 38PBD with all Cabin Bright products, amazing beyond compare!  The vanity lights and X Factor are dynamic to say the least.  Replaced 12 fluorescent tubes with X Factor replacements, truly no comparison with the competition.  The vanity replacements are also a change in class!

I will say the owner of cabin bright will take your personal calls and discuss products, specs and suggestions.  He is an electrical engineer and actually test each product before shipping, a company worth it's weight. 

By comparison my complete retrofit was approx one third the cost of the competition yet I find the quality a step above and then some!

Game changing products, I researched for four months and glad I went with Cabin Bright