A recent RV conversation thread revealed that many RVers need help. Their RV overhead lighting is too bright! Ours is too!
Bedroom lights
I like to read before going to sleep. My husband likes to sleep. The problem? Our RV’s ceiling puck lights are too bright! These “convenient reading lights” are bright enough for a brain specialist to perform surgery and are definitely too bright to induce restful sleep for my husband.
Don’t misunderstand. We enjoy the shadow-chasing, dazzling, LED lights most of the time. Then, bedtime arrives. The bright LED lights are great for my reading but are much too bright for my husband, who’s trying to fall asleep. He already has a CPAP machine and doesn’t want to wear a sleep mask on top of that! (Can’t blame him, right?) In addition, we turn down the RV’s temperature at nighttime, so it’s often too chilly for me to read in the living area.
Workarounds to bright overhead RV lighting
We’ve tried several workarounds for our bright RV overhead lighting problem.
Dimmable
I recently discovered that all of the ceiling lights in our RV are dimmable. (You can read about how I stumbled upon the dimming feature here.) To solve our bright light problem, we first tried using the dimmer. My husband was happy and could fall asleep easily, but I struggled to read my book. The light was just too dim for me.
Book light
I’ll admit it. I had to try several different book lights until I finally found this one. The clip holds pretty well, and the light stem is adjustable—another plus. I appreciate the three different light settings, but the best thing this book light has going for it is the rechargeable batteries.
Light shield
This is by far the best workaround I’ve found. Perfectstick (on Etsy) has a unique cover that you apply to the existing puck light. No rewiring, screws, or adhesives are needed. The cover just slips onto the existing LED lens to really help dim the glaring light. Check out Perfectstick’s listing and video and see for yourself!
Other RV areas
The Perfectstick puck shields would work well outside the bedroom, too. For instance, does glare from your LED lights make television viewing difficult?
Decorative puck shades
If you’d like a little more pizazz, take a look at these decorative puck light shades.
Try this light cover from The Cozy Glamper. I think this shade would look great over our RV’s dining table. It has excellent product reviews for ease of application (Command fasteners included) and quality of workmanship.
If you’re not afraid of a bit of rewiring (black wire to positive/white to negative) then this may be the light for you. It features a replaceable LED bulb, and isn’t that a cute, whimsical shade?
Are your RV puck lights too bright? How have you solved that problem? Tell me in the comments below, please.
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The “color” temperature of the light is critical in this. Most LED bulbs are 5-6kF bright white light. That’s near sunlight color but is far brighter/whiter than most of us are used to indoors. I replaced the bright white bulbs in our puck lights with 3,000F led bulbs and we’re much happier.
Thank you, Gail! Congratulations on your solution. Our overhead lights are dimmable, which is helpful. Also, DW, as you, reads when she first goes to bed, but she reads with her iPad and uses no overhead illumination. I really like the light shades and the light fixture with a shade that you found and shared. I’ll see if DW wants any for our RV. 🙂
We solved the problem by rewiring to an LED light strip with dimmable remote and it is above the cabinets for indirect lighting.
We do two things to reduce puck light glare.
1. I insert an ochre-colored paper circle in each light puck to warm the color (from bright white to warm white) and to reduce glare/intensity. In our experience LED pucks run so cool that overheating is not a problem.
2. We bought six AAA-powered adhesive-mount round puck lights and two dimmer/controllers for less than $20 here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFPNPKT5?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
At night, we use these dimmable, multi-color-choice pucks. I installed them near the factory pucks in our Winnebago Solis, and so now we have great control of light color and light intensity, any where in the rig, any time we want.
A much cheaper solution is to buy sheets of transparent plastic, used for coloring stage lights. Cut a circle and place it inside the light cover. Use 2 circles if you want it darker. Each sheet can make at least 4 circles and only costs a buck or two.
One of the challenges in adding a dimmer to your puck lights is the way manufacturers run a common ground to all lights. When you open your switch cover and find only a positive wire then you know your lights are probably on a common ground. Unfortunately LED dimmers require be wired into both the hot wire and the ground wire. So it becomes necessary to ‘fish’ new wire or figure out how to isolate the ground and run it to your dimmer.
I love to read at night – bought this on Amazon & liked it so much I bought them to give for Christmas gifts this year. Glocusent LED Neck Reading Light … check it out