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Upgrading Staircase Lights

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Upgrading Staircase LightsI woke up this morning to find the top side of my staircase mirror unlit. I guess the tube has blown after being on continuously for the last 2 years.

I keep these lights on all the time as I figured the cost of powering it is less than the cost of falling down, breaking my leg,  and not being rescued for days. I’ve fiddled with motion detection switches in the past but found them too finicky. However it would be good to try and save some money so I decided to see if the existing T5 28W fluorescent tube could be changed to an LED one.

I googled and found this place http://www.ideal-led.com.my/ just down the road from me, so paid them a visit. They had a T5 4′ 18W LED for RM38. However it’s not a tube but replaces the entire fixture i.e. replacing the entire casing + tube. Not sure what exactly is T5 about it then but they claim the casing fits the same clip and socket, so instead of twisting and and pulling out the tube, I just pull out the whole casing and swap this in to the existing clips and power plug.

There are proper replacement T5 “tubes” out there in the market but since I was already there, I decided on on this one. I bought two units with the plan to change both the top and bottom lights in case the tone didn’t match. The top one was easy as there was no clip, it was just sitting  on the frame panel. However, it turns out the power socket was different, the new one  has 3 pins whereas the old one was 2 pins only. Luckily, they included the power plug as well, so I just replaced my existing wire with that.

The new LED light is brighter and a slightly whiter tone than the old fluorescent tube, so I changed the bottom tube as well. Had to yank it quite hard to get it out of the clips, but the new one fit into the existing clips perfectly. In hindsight I could have gone for a lower wattage LED but then those are shorter and in my case the length factors in also.

There’s a 2-year warranty and when it dies, you just replace the whole thing (“casing” and “tube” are one unit on this). Note to my future self: The receipt is at the top of the mirror.

Comments (8):

  • 2014-09-08 20:21:25+0800 YeHuat Poh Good idea in keeping note on where you keep the receipt
  • 2014-09-08 23:59:12+0800 S M Sabri Ismail (sabre23t) I always enjoy your DIY stuffs Sha … me I just call an electrician on all these … hehe
  • 2016-05-31 22:30:36+0800 shahada abubakar “My future self” reporting in … thanks for the note… the LED has died! Both flickering non stop like a bad fluorescent light. Receipt is still there. Let’s see if they will honor that 2-year warranty …
  • 2016-05-31 23:19:12+0800 YeHuat Poh Where did you buy it from? Hopefully the shop is still around
  • 2016-05-31 23:36:35+0800 shahada abubakar I think still around … near sungai buloh ayam penyet. http://www.ideal-led.com.my/. Must go before puasa starts so can have lunch there too. 😎
  • 2016-06-01 16:26:13+0800 shahada abubakar Shop has moved! Luckily just a few blocks away. They want 2 days to repair it if they can … I think just the power coverter side of it died. Let’s see …
  • 2016-06-01 16:35:31+0800 YeHuat Poh Push them harder and might get new set
  • 2016-06-01 17:23:41+0800 shahada abubakar Meanwhile … staircase is now dark. Then I remembered I kept the one still working fluorescent tube from 2 years ago. Unfortunately, is a different connector. Searched whole house and managed to find old connector from 2 years ago also. Fixed that back … and now … no light. I have probably messed up the wiring also now. 😎

This post was originally published publicly on Google+ at 2014-09-08 18:51:43+0800

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