RE: Fluorescent Lights

[jackgoesthepopup]

 ThunderRock
I haven t seen anyone talk about a power inverter. That changes 12 vdc to 110vac..Thats what i would do.If i owned a new camper.When i gutted our old camper i just wired some of the lights though the 110 converter to make them 12 volt and some i didn t . So we can use both 110 v lights and 12v lights.

[mike4947]

 jackgoesthepopup
Jack, why bother adding an inverter which costs money and the goods ones are only 85-90% efficent to get the same amount of light just using 12 volt fixtures?
 One of the reasons everything in a PU is 12 volt is that it s the easiest system for use with both dry camping and hook ups. when at a electric site the 110 volt powers the converter for the 12 volt and loses are not a problem and when dry camping the battery supplies the 12 volt without any conversion loses.
 I converted to flourescents to save power when dry camping not to throw it away converting it from 12 volt to 110 volt.

[tlhdoc]

 ThunderRock
What wattage would you recomend for in a PU.  I like the idea of having velcro on the ceiling to move the light around.[]

[rccs]

 ThunderRock
I installed two fluorescent lights in my camper. I bought them from J.C. Whitney. They are only about 3/4 "  thick so they could be mounted permanently to the ceiling and they are really nice for the price. The longer one I used above the table is about 2 feet long and has 2 bulbs in it. It really gives a lot of light, nice for playing cards at night or for when we camp later in the season and it gets dark earlier. I used a shorter one above the sink because of the amount of room to install it. I just screwed them to the ceiling - with screws that were only long enough to go about 1/4 inch through the fixture. Then I used some stick on plastic wire raceway to run the wires in on the ceiling from the original fixtures. The shorter fixture was around $15.00 and the longer one was around $19.00. They both came with bulbs installed.