Recessed lighting w/ night light

[tomrasdf]

Love the idea of having overhead lighting with dual modes for standard brightness and a "night mode".

Like the following:
https://www.amazon.com/Mounight-Sele..._dp&th=1&psc=1

I am having a hard time finding just the light without the driver (I'd like to run my lights entirely on DC).

Anyone know a where one could source for just the DC light?

[DeMac]

Why would any company offer a lighting product which operates on a line voltage of 12vDC?

Probably popular for us skoolies. I'd love to have the ones you've found, in a driverless model.

Excluding RVs, is there a market for that sort of application? What buildings have 12v DC wire runs for interior lighting & DC switches?

We use led disks, which have no external driver. Supplied with 120v AC line voltage, they are only 1/2" thick, driverless, dimmable and switched with standard devices. This 3" emits 800 lumens.

maxlite-products/round-light-engines-retrofit-kits

Maxlite produces retrofit led kits in several round & square sizes. Available in multiple Kelvin hues. The application requires a 120v rated box for the joints, custom mounting, diffusers &/or fixtures.

[craigify]

I'm not sure how dim you want it to be at night, but I installed 12 volt LED strip lighting and wired it to a DC dimmer switch. It looks really cool at night.

Too bright for sleeping, but good mood setting for evenings and night.

[PhilipE]

You are going to need a driver to get the light dimmed to a level for night lighting.

Superbirghtled has a lot of native 12 volt led lighting.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/

I have used their products for quite a few years. Just look around the site. They have a decent selection of lighting. They have a good support staff to answer questions if you want to call.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by DeMac

Why would any company offer a lighting product which operates on a line voltage of 12vDC?

Probably popular for us skoolies. I'd love to have the ones you've found, in a driverless model.

Excluding RVs, is there a market for that sort of application? What buildings have 12v DC wire runs for interior lighting & DC switches?

We use led disks, which have no external driver. Supplied with 120v AC line voltage, they are only 1/2" thick, driverless, dimmable and switched with standard devices. This 3" emits 800 lumens.

maxlite-products/round-light-engines-retrofit-kits

Maxlite produces retrofit led kits in several round & square sizes. Available in multiple Kelvin hues. The application requires a 120v rated box for the joints, custom mounting, diffusers &/or fixtures.

12 volt really only has use in mobile and in small installations (ie a wall wart and under cabinet stick-ons) and maybe around water / landscaping..



the little IKEA stick on lights i have in my credenzas have a brick that converts to 12 volt which goes into its little controller..



I love the idea of can lights that can dim beyond the level of most for night lighting.. my LED strips to go down pretty low..

[tomrasdf]

What I like about the specific puck linked in the original post is that it allows me to switch between full brightness and dim/indirect without having to use a dimmer.

I have found the PWM-dimmed LEDs mess with me (headaches, etc). Trying to find a way to have bright/dim modes in a single unit w/o a dimmer switch.

[Brdfrd]

Originally Posted by tomrasdf

Love the idea of having overhead lighting with dual modes for standard brightness and a "night mode".

Like the following:
https://www.amazon.com/Mounight-Sele..._dp&th=1&psc=1

So LED lights generally operate on either 12 or 24vDC, and you can dim many just by dropping the voltage. In theory, if you knew these were 12v LEDs, you could bypass the driver—sometimes it’s built into a printed circuit board that the LED is also soldered/built into. I have some like this I installed under my porch and they’re great. I haven’t taken them apart though, so not sure how difficult it would be to bypass the driver.

These low profile can type lights are nice, but you can also consider buying an LED strip lighting kit. They have aluminum extrusions with lens material that snaps in, that the LED tape can be installed in—makes for a nice installation—I put it around the inside of my walk in fireplace and it looks great.

[tomrasdf]

I've put some work into this, and here's what I've found:

The light I really want (the thin puck light with the night-light ring) has three LED elements in it: i) the 2.3k indirect night light ring, ii) a 2.7k direct ring, and iii) a 5k direct right.

They have a common hot and independent ground leads. Thought it would be really fun to set it up on some sort of rotary switch so that I could switch between the modes.

However, I am finding that the input voltage for each element at the rated wattage is about 34v (no light below ~30v, 1.5x rated wattage at 36v). And at rated wattage, the light gets hot (125F on the FLIR). Between the fact that this is an odd voltage, and the heat being generated, I am ditching the concept....

Where I am looking next:
I'm still disappointed with the available selection avaialble of thin (<1") recessed puck lights. Everything I've found in this size so far is not rated for use in wet areas (i.e., shower room), single temp, and cheap feeling. All the quality lights I am finding are sold with a DC driver for use on AC, and the voltage on most appears to be ~36v (though information on this is spotty).

I have some inquiries out on a few of the (seemingly) higher quality AC/driver units to assess whether they would be compatible on 12/24DC (scrapping the driver). If those prove fruitless, I will just go with the cheapo 12v pucks I am finding on Amzn and make it work, either doing my best to seal them when installed in the shower/wet room or going with another light in that room.

I'll update the thread with what I find. Any guidance/comments/opinions very welcome!