Ikea LED galley light upgrade in Bigfoot - Fiberglass RV
Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×


Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
 
Old 10-31-2014, 01:21 PM   #1
Senior Member
 
Name: Mike
Trailer: Bigfoot 17' DLX
Alaska
Posts: 384
Registry
Ikea LED galley light upgrade in Bigfoot

Last month I did a fair amount of boondocking and discovered how quickly the old incandescent lights in my 1989 Bigfoot can drain the battery. A couple nights were well below freezing and I really needed the juice for the furnace blower to stay warm. So the past few weeks I started looking into LED lighting to replace some of the incandescent fixtures.

In the past when I looked into LEDs, they were all too high in color temperature for my taste. Too "white" and too harsh, and, in spite of that, not bright enough (not enough lumens), so I dismissed them entirely. But with my new-found need to occasionally boondock, I decided to look into them again.

Among the several fixtures I wanted to update was the single-lamp fixture in the galley under the overhead cabinet. I never did like that light. Too much light in one spot directly below the fixture, and not enough over the sink or on the right side of the counter above the fridge. I wanted the light more spread out across the width of the counter from the range to the right edge of the counter.

On a visit to Ikea here in So Cal, I stumbled on a LED wardrobe strip light that intrigued me. It has a fairly warm color temperature (rated by Ikea at 2,700K) and the light in the store display seemed pretty bright. It is available in three different lengths; 17, 26, and 36-inch. The 36-inch model would be ideal to cover the 40-inches across the counter. The light assembly is called the Striberg model. Here is the link:

STRIBERG LED light strip - IKEA

It is a 12-volt light so I simply discarded the transformer and hard-wired it directly in place of the original Jensen 12-volt incandescent fixture. I ran a piece of plastic wire race from the fixture to the original hole where the wire drops out of the overhead cabinet to clean it up a bit.

I'm really happy with this light. I love the light it gives off both in color and intensity. Mounted flush under the cabinet, some of the light is directed to the back wall and there is a dark spot on the front edge of the counter. But the room lights fill this in pretty well and thus far, it's a non-issue. If it starts to bother me I can shim the fixture on the inside edge to point the light in a more downward direction but with the room lights on, the shadow is not as bad as it appears in the photo.

The only thing I really don't like is the switch. It's a tiny slide switch that is impossible to see once the light is mounted and difficult to operate by feel. These lights are meant to operate inside a wardrobe with a magnetic reed switch on the door turning them on and off. But after a couple nights, I got the hang of the switch just fine. If it turns out to be a problem, I'll just add a rocker switch to the wire race and tap it straight into the power supply wire and just leave the mini slide switch on all the time.

Anyway, just wanted to share this light with the community in case someone is looking to do something similar.
Attached Thumbnails
IMG_0255_ikea_striberg_led.jpg  
trainjunkie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-31-2014, 02:58 PM   #2
Senior Member
 
Borrego Dave's Avatar
 
Name: Dave
Trailer: Casita SD17 2006 "Missing Link"
California
Posts: 3,738
Looks good Mike and having the light bounce off the back wall should eliminate a few shadows too.
Borrego Dave is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
bigfoot, light


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Eggcamper Galley Grid Mod Letitia Modifications, Alterations and Updates 25 08-20-2013 06:56 PM
Scamp 13 galley ? GaryG Problem Solving | Owners Helping Owners 10 12-21-2012 09:19 AM
Inexpensive LED lights from IKEA kevin61 Modifications, Alterations and Updates 50 10-26-2011 06:45 PM
Split in floor on Trillium 4500 in front of galley Ken Saunderson Problem Solving | Owners Helping Owners 4 09-13-2007 07:57 AM

» Upcoming Events
No events scheduled in
the next 465 days.
» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:51 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.