LED Ceiling Lights for Van Conversion: Acegoo 12V (3 Watts) Dimmable Recessed Puck

LED Ceiling Lights for Van Conversion: Acegoo 12V (3 Watts) Dimmable Recessed Puck

LED-Review-Van-Conversion
Updated:

After some trial-and-error we finally found what (we think) are the perfect recessed ceiling LED lights! The first LEDs we ordered were WAY too bright as the glass was clear instead of frosted. Even with a dimmer, the light was shocking for the eye. Then we stumbled on the Acegoo LED lights…

 

We installed 10 Acegoo Warm-White LEDs: in terms of lumens, 6-8 lights should be enough. We installed 10 in order to get a more uniform source of lightning (so when an overhead storage door is opened, we’re still getting light from somewhere).

The LED lights are operated with a dual zone dimmer; the bedroom zone has 4 lights, and the kitchen zone has 6 lights.

The 10 lights draw 1.3 amps total at 100% intensity, 0.1 amp total at minimum intensity. For reference, we will set the intensity to 100% when washing dishes, being productive, etc. We will set the intensity to approximately 10% for quiet moments.

LED-Intensity
Amperage Draw reading on the Bogart TM-2030-RV Monitor.

 

 

What we Like about the Acegoo LED Lights

  • They are dimmable (with an appropriate LED dimmer, see below)
  • The frosted glass produces a soft & diffused light
  • The spring mechanism makes it very easy to install and remove the LED from the ceiling

 

What we Don’t Like …

Nothing to see here!

 

 

Models & Where to Buy


DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click a product link and buy anything from the merchant (Amazon, eBay, etc), we will receive a commission fee. The price you pay remains the same, affiliate link or not.

Portrait


 

 

acegoo Recessed Ceiling Light LED 12V 3W, Warm White (Silver)
Warm White, Silver Finish. These are the ones that we are using! Buy on Amazon.
acegoo Recessed Ceiling Light LED 12V 3W, Warm White (White)
Warm White, White Finish. Buy on Amazon.
acegoo Recessed Ceiling Light LED 12V 3W, Warm White (Silver)
Cool White, Silver Finish. Buy on Amazon.
acegoo Recessed Ceiling Light LED 12V 3W, Warm White (White)
Cool White, White Finish. Buy on Amazon.

 

Dimmer

LEDs MUST be dimmed with an appropriate LED dimmer. If you’re in the market for a 12V one, good luck! They are either super expensive or super ugly. After countless hours of research, we found the perfect match for our great LEDs! It’s a two-zone dimmer, so we can control the bedroom/kitchen LEDs independently. The sliders feel great and hold in place as they should. The lights are off when the sliders are completely down:

Led Dimmer Slider 12V Single Zone
Single Zone Switch and Dimmer (12V). Buy on Amazon.
LED Switch 3 Way
3-Way Single-Zone Switch and Dimmer (to install more than one switch that control the same LEDs). Buy on Amazon.
Dual_Slide_Switch_Dimmer_LEDs
Dual Zone Switch and Dimmer (12V). Buy on SuperBrightLEDs.com.

 

Dual-Zone-Dimmer

 

Installation

It doesn’t get easier than this…

acegoo Recessed Ceiling Light LED 12V 3W, installation
Manufacturer Installation Instructions (click to enlarge)

 

Using a 2-3/8″ diameter hole saw (Buy on Amazon), we prepared the cutouts in the paneling:

Recessed Light LED Cutout

 

To install the LEDs, pull-up the two springs and then the LEDs just “snap” into place (and can later be removed easily).

For the wood paneling installation write-up: https://faroutride.com/wood-paneling/

 

Electrical Wiring

The lights MUST be wired in parallel (series won’t work). Here is the wiring diagram:

Van LED lights Wiring

(Note: to size your wires, please read: Electrical System Design)

Material shown in the sketch above:

 

To have solid and reliable electrical connections with different wire diameter (14 AWG vs 22 AWG), we used:

On LED side:

22-18 AWG Male Disconnect Ancor Heat Shrink
22-18 AWG Male Disconnect Ancor Heat Shrink . Buy on Amazon. (note male/female pictures are mixed up in the Amazon page at the time of writing this; make your selection according to the text, not the images!)
On live side:

16-14 AWG Female Disconnect Ancor Heat Shrink
16-14 AWG Female Disconnect Ancor Heat Shrink. Buy on Amazon.

 

Random pictures:

Van-Converson-LED-wiring

LED wiring van

 

 

Voilà!

Lights-On-Lights-Off
Lights Off / Lights On

 

Runner Up

As mentioned in the introduction, we first ordered LEDs from Superbrightleds.com. Why didn’t we used them? Because they are, well… SUPER-BRIGHT! The clear glass will not diffuse the light, and we found this to be very irritating. Also, we prefer the spring mechanism of the Acegoo LEDs; we feel they will hold better and can be replaced more easily. Don’t get us wrong: the quality of the superbrightleds.com is just fine. In fact, we would certainly use them at a location where the light is not directly in our eyes (such as the cargo area). But because of the clear glass, we would not recommend them for a living area.

SuperBrightLEDS VS acegoo
(click to enlarge)

 

Conclusion

We’re stoked with our Acegoo lights/Dual-Zone-Dimmer combo! If we were to start over, we would go the exact same route!

 

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Hello! We’re Isabelle and Antoine 🙂 In 2017, we sold our house (and everything in it), quit our engineering careers, and moved into our self-built campervan. Every day is an opportunity for a new adventure... We’re chasing our dreams, and hopefully it inspires others to do the same!

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