Recently, more individuals have taken on the road in campers, RVs, vans, or modified buses, adopting the nomadic (or minimalist) lifestyle. For some people, living in a little camper would be intolerable. Others, on the other hand, spend years converting ancient school buses, minibuses, or panel vans into camper vans for permanent habitation or impromptu road trips. A camper van may nevertheless seem spacious inside even if it is tiny.
When converting a van, installing inside illumination need to be one of your top considerations. Most vans have few windows that seldom provide good lighting, giving the impression that you are living in a gloomy box. For ease and comfort whether living in a camper, van, or compact home, high-quality lighting is essential.
This article presents great lighting alternatives for your setup along with some examples from pros in the business and discusses the significance of lighting design in campers (or any compact area).
Things to take into account while selecting camper van lighting
Your camper will be a useful and pleasant home on wheels if it has the correct mix of lighting. The primary factors to take into account while selecting lights for your van or bus are purpose, efficiency, power source, brightness, color temperature, and installation.
Purpose
Think about the functions of the various spaces in your vehicle and the lighting requirements for each. The Contravans, who are among our customers, are experts in the field of camper van design. Please visit their website to see all of the photographs.
Effort Lighting
For a certain work, task lighting increases the amount of light in a space. The kitchen in a camper van is where you'll need task lighting the most. Let's make sure the chef can see while they are slicing and dicing since we don't want any emergencies while traveling!
Ford Transit High Roof Contravans
Specialized Lighting
As the primary source of lighting in a vehicle, van interior lights are excellent to have. These will provide your space with general lighting just as any home ceiling light would.
Ford Transit Campervan Conversion by Contravans
Background Lighting
For the living and bedroom spaces, some people may prefer a darker, mood-setting light.
Ford Transit Camper Conversion by Contravans
Outside Lighting
A lot of campers like spending time outside the RV. For the evening celebrations in this situation, outside illumination could be required.
Efficiency
Anyone who lives off-grid, whether in a home or a camper, is aware of how valuable the electricity is. The battery in a solar-powered electrical system can only store and provide so much electricity, therefore it's always crucial to choose the most effective options.
LED lights may be used at high settings without using a lot of power and are very efficient. Your camper van should solely have LED lights, following our recommendation.
Power Source
Any LED lighting you choose for your camper will need a power source. The majority of van conversions employ an additional "leisure" or "house" battery for electronics, fans, and refrigeration. Lighting would be considered recreational, and LED lighting would not significantly drain your power source or batteries.
For those using a simpler setup, LED lighting alternatives are still available. Without a split-power relay, LED lights in campervans are normally powered by rechargeable batteries or standalone batteries.
Brightness
Lumens are used to measure brightness. The brightness of the light increases with the lumen count. For the sake of camper van lighting, we shall condense the topic into these straightforward recommendations.
Living Areas & Bedrooms = 300-500 lumens/square meter
500–800 lumens per square meter for the kitchen and "Tasky" areas.
Dimmers are the greatest choice in a small place like a camper van since almost every space has several uses so that the same light may be muted or brightened depending on your task.
Temperature of Color
When discussing LED lighting, the subject of color temperature must always be brought up. The hue of white light is a spectrum, much as the color spectrum. White light is measured in Kelvins (K), where cooler temperatures, such as those between 5000 and 6500 K, are referred to as cold white and warmer temperatures, such as those between 2500 and 3500 K. (yellow-ish). Fortunately, neutral white has a color temperature of roughly 4000K for individuals who are undecided.
Cool White light is often recommended for working areas since it seems brighter to the eye. Warmer white light seems darker and gives off a more muted, low-contrast glow, simulating the sunset's yellowish hue.
Lighting the Camper Installation
It all boils down to finishing the project, as it does with any other undertaking. Every van or camper will have its own problems, and every light will need a separate installation. The LED lighting products listed below are the best for campers and van conversions, according on our experience with hundreds of campers and van life enthusiasts.
LED Recessed Lights
The preferred kind of lighting for campervans is recessed lighting, sometimes known as "Puck" lighting. These lights are low-profile, simple to install, and energy-efficient, making them ideal for vehicle illumination. At LEDSupply, we provide the parts necessary to construct recessed LED lighting from high-quality materials.
Our 5W or 10W LED housing kits may be used for this. These are suitable for 12V input and may be tailored to your precise requirements.
We have two unfinished surface mount devices that provide high-quality light at 12V input using top-performing mid-power Nichia LEDs. Usually, heatsinking and wiring are taken into consideration while designing these boards into van lighting systems. Since the board has a low profile (5mm), they can attach to nearly anything almost flush.
Strips of LED lights
It shouldn't come as a surprise that LED strip lights are the most popular kind of illumination for campers and vans. A fast and simple campervan lighting solution is LED light strips. Hundreds of LEDs are packed into the linear strips, which may provide reliable illumination throughout your truck. They are a popular item for the majority of campers because to their unlimited variety of colors, settings, and designs.
LED Strip lights have an adhesive backing and are very simple to install. However, if they are going to be viewed by the direct eye, as they normally would be inside a campervan, it is usually advisable to house them inside a track and diffuser. In addition to making them seem more professional, doing so will scatter the light throughout your truck and make the hot spots less glaring.
With in-line dimmers, LED Strip lights are simple to dim, making them excellent choices for basic, multi-purpose lighting throughout a vehicle. Strip lighting has been used by huge buses that have been converted to provide cove lighting for people utilizing smaller areas when it is required.
Some claim that task lighting in a vehicle would need more than just strip lights. Contravans, one of our finest clients, begs to disagree, nevertheless. See for yourself how they used high-density strip lights to build a mobile learning lab!
Luminous Vans that Will Last a Lifetime
Our goods may be used in a variety of ways inside campervans and travel vans. Why not add LED lights to your camper van conversion as the majority of prefabricated RVs and campers already do? Later on, you will thank us.
