Better interior lighting / Aesthetic / 120v

[ethanjune]

Hey there,

I wanted to open up thoughts, opinions, and examples if anyone has went down the path of doing some higher quality or aesthetically pleasing interior lighting.

I did lighting in the film industry, so this side of things is real important to me. First and foremost, I wouldn't personally settle for anything less than 2700k (and "warm white" is actually now a days at 3000k if you were to take a Kelvin scale color meter to it). We were planning on doing some under-cabinet strip lighting on the RGB scale. RGB usually have less output for the same wattage of white lights on that scale, so they are less efficient in that sense and are not good for your main lights. obviously. Anything that is RGBW, would also be in that category. As far as my main overhead fixtures, I'm looking in the 2700k scale for puck lights, as these are really the best solution I can find for a low profile light, even though I hate the idea of tiny lights that have a small diffusion near the bulb topped with the LED component where diodes don't spread out the way incandescent bulbs do..those puck lights are basically little spot lights at the end of the day. I'd love to hear if anyone has found some better solutions other than your stereotypical puck lights.

My situation would probably be some RGBW color strip ribbon for accenting and mood, but my main overheads I'm trying to find some aesthetically please puck lights. You can pretty much forget about any fancy lighting from the RV / 12v world so I'm considering something a little more unconventional and I want all the solar / electrical gurus to tell me if this is a terrible idea. These puck lights are 120v, can operate them at a true 2700k, and they have an additional "Night mode' that dims it and spills off the side for that recessed chrome look, as well as adjusting the temperature to 2000k "amber." 10W, 120v (but would probably need less of them through out)



https://www.amazon.com/Amico-Recesse...3&sr=8-17&th=1

Please let me know if you think this is a terrible and inefficient idea.Or if anyone wants to share what they have done instead that's unique.

[cadillackid]

ive not found anything really suitable in a low input voltage.. im really into lighting in my home (did community theatre lights way back when).. my one bus is a mobile office and I use Nanoleaf "canvas" tiles in it.. but they are powered by 120 volt input to the control pack.. however I think you can run like 30 tiles off of a single control pack before you need an additional.. mounting them is a challenge.. in my case I glued magnets to the back of them (my bus ceiling is still stock).. which I have had only mioxed success with.. gluing smooth metal magnets even after roughing up to plastic hasnt worked the greatest..



I love the ones you selected only I want full RGB (if not RGBW) control.. these would be considerably brighter than each nanoleaf panel.. and most surely MUCH less pricey...



the only issue in a bus id have with these is what to do with 16 transformers since they cant be linked to one single one or 2.. and can you truly group control them..



I bought some amazon RGBW magnetic puck lights and found that the only way to control them was using a IR remote that you have to point at enough of the lights to control them. so its a crap shoot which ones respond.

[TheHubbardBus]

Originally Posted by ethanjune

You can pretty much forget about any fancy lighting from the RV / 12v world so I'm considering something a little more unconventional and I want all the solar / electrical gurus to tell me if this is a terrible idea. These puck lights are 120v...

If energy consumption is something you care about (as in your intended use is primarily off-grid, running off an inverter), running your house lighting on AC as opposed to DC is a terrible idea. DC-powered led pucks sip so little juice it's almost negligible. But AC-powered pucks... they're going to require your inverter to run, the entire time they're on. In all likelihood, the self-consumption value of the inverter will be orders of magnitude greater than the amount of power the lights draw. It's a really, really inefficient way of lighting your space.

FWIW, we wanted really warm light for our ceiling pucks. The pucks we chose were 12VDC 2700Ks from Armacost. I don't know if they're a 'true' 2700K, but they're more than warm enough for our needs. I also don't know if the diffusion would be pleasing to you, especially when dimmed heavily (they're dimmable, of course). But we're pleased. They also come in 3000, 4000, & 5000. We're using the 4000s for our task / bathroom lights. If you're willing to reconsider 12V, maybe buy one, hook it up to a battery, & see if you like it. If not, send it back.

I see now they have other puck options not available when we purchased ours. Don't know anything about them but maybe more options for you to look into. I'm linking to the puck page listing all their options. Ours were the 'Purvue white undercabinet' pucks, FWIW. We also bought our controllers from them too.

https://www.armacostlighting.com/col...rs?sort=manual

[HamSkoolie]

Are those lights truly AC or is the AC converted back to DC in those metal boxes? If that's the case you're creating unnecessary losses. The amount may be acceptable to you for the desired lighting but you should know whether or not it is there.

[TheHubbardBus]

Good point, Ham. If they're LEDs, they're DC. So yeah... you'd be converting DC to AC to DC again if it's a battery/inverter system being discussed.

[Hardknockskoold]

I used 12vdc led light boxes I made out of aluminum they mount over the window and hide the factory wording harnesses I wanted lights I can run on 12 VDC and 110vac so I wired one side to the 12 vdc and got a power supply for the 110 just don’t run both at same time