A 32 V solution to a shower light

[Red Hatt]

The three little holes in the shower wall from the old light fixture would drive me crazy.

 

[oscarvan]

LED's DO generate heat, just less and from what I understand it goes into the heat sink at the bottom of the bulb. But if there is no ventilation it will build up... Not sure if OP removed any kind of housing there?

 

[riverrandy]

I did not have a thermometer to test with but it did not burn my hand. I assumed the same temp as cup of coffee. I did notice that with the charger off and having 32 v, not the 36 v, the light is less intense, and the temp dropped dramatically. There is also 3 inches of space above my light so cooling is available. Finally I am bald, and my showers don't last too long so I was not worried about running it for hours. I am planing on putting a dimmer on to see what happens, I will also get a temperature reading for all.

 

[Boatsb]

You need to feed it a stable voltage. A DC to DC.CONVERTER. it will keep the voltage constant. Higher voltages will increase heat exponentially.

 

[sixty]

I did not have a thermometer to test with but it did not burn my hand. I assumed the same temp as cup of coffee. I did notice that with the charger off and having 32 v, not the 36 v, the light is less intense, and the temp dropped dramatically. There is also 3 inches of space above my light so cooling is available. Finally I am bald, and my showers don't last too long so I was not worried about running it for hours. I am planing on putting a dimmer on to see what happens, I will also get a temperature reading for all.

I ran them for about 3 hours yesterday and the temp seemed to hold pretty consistently. The adjacent finishes never got very hot so I think they will be ok and the heat is just part of the design (sticker did not blister or peel). I bought the metal trim ring version so they will hold more heat and "feel" hotter than plastic. Overall this is a heck of an upgrade for not much more cost than a 32v bulb. WAY better functionally and esthetically than the OEM fixtures. I plan on keeping them and inspecting for heat damage regularly.

One thing I wanted to try was to connect the ballasts directly to 32V to see if they would function better. I left mine at home 400 miles away but they may regulate a little better and be dimmer.

In my research I saw that Lithonia (WF4) made a higher quality version of this ight with 650 lumens vs 900 and have big heat sink built in. The cost is about the same but use a slightly smaller hole. I have no idea what the output of the ballast is but I would guess somewhere int e same range. These might be a better option.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

This is the reason that a Home Cheapo fixture is probably not the best idea. Imtra or some other marine fixture that is UL rated and marine rated would make me sleep better. Its just not worth burning up the boat to save $40.

 

[riverrandy]

Tonight I left it on for an hour, and took a reading of the metal trim ring. It was at the hottest place 123 degrees. I would like to look other options as well. I like the idea of the heat sink.

 

[Boatsb]

Read post 11.

 

[sixty]

I thought I would update this thread. I installed a total of 4 of the Home Depot LED's and they worked great (besides running hot) until a few weeks ago when two on the same circuit started flickering in sequence and slowly killed both fixtures. I decided to try the Lithonia WF4 fixture I ordered and this time decided to try the fixture thru the ballast that came with the light. At 36 volts DC the Lithonia fixtures put out about 30% more light than the original Hatteras fixtures and about half of what the Home Depot fixtures put out and develop almost no heat. I did not try wiring them without the ballast since I think they will work best with the stable voltage provided by the ballast but would expect they would be a lot brighter. The ballast is contained in a metal housing which you can remove and pull out the plastic ballast housing which is what I did and you end up with a 2"x 1.5" X 3/4" thick black box.

I found a place selling the square versions in oil rubbed bronze (matches my décor) on Ebay so I picked up 8 of them for $10 each shipped which will give me two spares once I install them in all 3 showers and heads. These are VERY high quality lights & I expect to get a lot of time out of them.

They come in many different colors, shapes and warm to white light and even in a 6" version.