Dimmer for led lights

[taylor4069]

Has anyone added a dimmer to the inside lights on the A-frame camper? Seems like they are a little harsh in the evening sometimes.

[acadianbob]

When you buy LED lights for your house, only certain bulbs are dimmable. I would bet that RV LEDs are the cheapest possible and not able to be dimmed.

[IowaRVer]

Let us know if you find any dimmable bulbs to fit RV light fixtures… it would be a great find… then we could add a dimmer! I like the concept.

We usually find ourselves using only certain lights (e.g. under range hood) to minimize the harsh lighting and give us more indirect, soft lighting.

We often simply burn a candle (in a safe location)to accomplish same.

[Nick Danger]

Originally Posted by IowaRVer

We usually find ourselves using only certain lights (e.g. under range hood) to minimize the harsh lighting and give us more indirect, soft lighting.

Showed this line to my wife. I too think the lights are excessively bright and harsh. She's always telling me to turn the overhead lights on when I do this. Followed closely with "electricity is included with the campsite. Why don't we use it."

She's also can't seem to turn off lights in rooms she's not in at the house.

[CJS56]

Our TT has a dimmer switch as part of the control panel. Tap it on and off, hold your finger on it to dim the lights. Maybe you can add that type of switch to your main lighting on/off switch?

[5picker]

Many LED RV lights are dimmable.
Have any of you looked into these dimmers other folks are using?
There are lots of styles available and there are many prior posts on this forum about this.

12 Volt DC Dimmer for LED, Halogen, Incandescent - RV, Auto, Truck, Marine, and Strip Lighting - Short Shaft - Silver



Single Color LED Controller with Dynamic Modes - RF Remote



LED Dimmer Switch 12V on-off Light RV Motor Home Camper Trailer Black 12 V

[BehindBars]

I can’t speak for your A Frame, but in my motorhome and in my toyhauler trailer, I have installed a total of seven dimmers and they all work fine with a wide variety of 12 volt LED lights. I have not yet encountered a 12 volt RV LED of any type that wasn’t dimmable. Even awning strips lights are dimmable. I use the first and the last style dimmers shown in 5picker’s post #6 above.

[BehindBars]

Originally Posted by acadianbob

When you buy LED lights for your house, only certain bulbs are dimmable. I would bet that RV LEDs are the cheapest possible and not able to be dimmed.

I think you’d lose that bet. 120 volt AC house lights and 12 volt DC RV lights are not entirely the same animal. I have dimmers on 5 different styles of 12 volt LED RV lights, including awning strip lights. and haven’t come across any RV lights yet that aren’t dimmable.

[taylor4069]

Think the leds are dimmable, when my battery gets low the lights get dimmer

[WasatchSteve]

I have a switch that controls three of my overhead LED lights. Does the dimmer just connect to the two wires coming into that switch? One is ground and the other 12V? Just a little confused by equating a household single pole switch where the switch just makes a connection on the hot line and doesn't include a common or ground. Thanks.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by acadianbob

When you buy LED lights for your house, only certain bulbs are dimmable. I would bet that RV LEDs are the cheapest possible and not able to be dimmed.

Bob, you would lose the bet.

LEDs are inherently lpw-voltage, low-current DC devices. The electronics in the base of an LED designed for 120v AC converts the high-voltage AC to DC. That electronics often doesn't like the modified AC produced by the usual (diac-plus-triac) dimmer circuit; it's AC with segments chopped out of it.

But LEDs do quite nicely in a trailer's LED-friendly low-voltage DC environment. In that environment, the simplest way to power an LED is to use a series resistor to limit the current. Many trailers are built this way and most of the LEDs designed to fit 12v sockets meant for incandescent lamps use series resistors. You can dim the lamp by simply putting an additional, adjustable resistor (potentiometer, rheostat, etc.) in series. With certain LEDS, there is some color change as the LED is dimmed. This approach isn't particularly efficient. If you are a boondocker who watches every milliamp, it's something to think about.

Another option is to use electronics to chop segments out of the DC feeding the LED, but keeping the current the same, to avoid color changes. A few users on this forum have reported that radiation from the chopped current interferes with their cellphones or Wi-Fi.

[BehindBars]

Originally Posted by WasatchSteve

I have a switch that controls three of my overhead LED lights. Does the dimmer just connect to the two wires coming into that switch? One is ground and the other 12V? Just a little confused by equating a household single pole switch where the switch just makes a connection on the hot line and doesn't include a common or ground. Thanks.

How the dimmer is wired depends on the dimmer model. Some require a 12 volt ground, some don’t.

[Should_Have]

Here is one I installed in my camper, required a ground.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MF2YQ3H...t_details&th=1

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by WasatchSteve

I have a switch that controls three of my overhead LED lights. Does the dimmer just connect to the two wires coming into that switch? One is ground and the other 12V? Just a little confused by equating a household single pole switch where the switch just makes a connection on the hot line and doesn't include a common or ground. Thanks.

No! This is not correct.

There is no ground at the switch!

• One wire has 12V all the time.
• The other wire has 12V only when the switch is on. (That's what switches do.)
• Ground goes directly to the lights. Ground could be present in the area where the switch is located, although not connected to the switch. But more than likely, Grouind is not present at the switch.

As noted above, some of the dimmer accessories require a ground connection. That's always present at the light, not necessarily at the switch.

[bjaspud]

One piece of duct tape over the lens dims my lights to an acceptable level.

[chengdave]

Being a COB, I took a different route. I cut up translucent milk jugs to fit inside the lenses layering them until they weren't so glaring to my (and my wife's) satisfaction. It took several layers, but since the led's don't get hot so it's not a concern....and you can't beat the price...

[Bob K4TAX]

Most RV LED systems are 12-volt DC systems.

In fact, I changed all of our original incandescent lights to LED lights by just replacing the bulbs. The net power saving was all 12 LED modules on at the same time used the same amount of DC power as ONE incandescent bulb.

As to dimming, I installed a potentiometer or variable resistor in the fixture of each one. I forget the value I used but it works great.

Bob

[AT1961]

I like the 12v dc dimmer dial, but I am not sure where to find the piece that would snap into the control panel (I would be happy to have a blank adapter that I could drill a hole into). Any ideas where I could get such a thing?

[gw1800]

PWM, pulse width modulator, dimmers will work on all LED'. They do not decrease the voltage. The break the 12 volts into on and off increments. The longer the 'on' time the brighter the light.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by AT1961

I like the 12v dc dimmer dial, but I am not sure where to find the piece that would snap into the control panel (I would be happy to have a blank adapter that I could drill a hole into). Any ideas where I could get such a thing?

Are you going to mount it where/by the switch? Post a picture, so we can see what it looks like? Or are you just going to mount it on a blank part of the wall?

Let us know so we can make suggestions.