Once installed the second battery and the split charge relay (more here), my mission was to put the LED lightning on the roof.
I decided to go for a set of IKEA Dioder lights as they were cheap, easy to find and had good reviews online.
I wired mine directly to the leisure battery, running it through a Reuk 12v regulator . The regulator makes sure that the lights won’t receive a higher current from the battery hence preventing the lights from blowing.
Partly because of convenience and partly because of laziness, I kept the original switch but I am planning to install a nicer one.
Here’s is how I did it:
1.Fix the lights to the roof panel previously carpeted. I wanted mine to be flush so I had previously cut 4 holes in the panel. I then glued a small wood stick on the back so that I could screw the light support on.
- Screw the light support.
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Fit the LED lights on the supports and run the cables on the back of the roof panels. Secure the cables with some strong tape
- Fix the panel to the roof. Be careful not to insert screws were the cables are!
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Snap the transformer off (transformer = the plug) and separate the two cables for about 20 cm. The cable with the writing in it is the positive one, to remind yourself you might want to put some red tape around it.
6.Strip about 1cm of insulation off from the cables. Place the positive and negative cable endings into the appropriate screw-in terminal on the regulator (if using a REUK regulator, check their site for instructions).
7. Cut about 20cm of red and a black cable and add a ring terminal big enough to fit the leisure battery. I used 1mm cables. Fit the cables in the appropriate screw-in terminals.
8. If you have purchased a regulator with switch terminals but do not wish to install one, you will need make a loop on those unused terminals. If you don’t the lights won’t work. To do this just cut a piece of cable of about 4cm and place one end into the positive switch terminal and the other end into the negative one.
- Make sure all of the connections are tight on the regulator by pulling very lightly the cables.
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Secure the regulator. I placed mine on the back of the battery box.
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Connect the cables to the battery and…. Voilà! You now have light in your van 🙂
-A ridiculous amount of coffee has been sacrificed to write this blog post so if you are feeling particularly generous, you can buy me one HERE .
You can also support Pamthevan’s adventures by visiting my Etsy shop HERE -
So you basically took apart the power/control box to the lights so you could wire it directly to your set-up? Is this correct? Where does the regulator come into play and why no connection to a switch? Did I miss something?
Hi Pete! Yes i took out the transformer that came with the lights and wired it up to the second battery. I left the original switch on but am planning to install a separate one. The regulator makes sure that the lights receive exactly 12v and not more, it’s just a precaution to avoid blowing them off!
Hope this clarifies it 🙂
I thought that IKEA only has lights for houses and they need 110 V or 220V to turn the lights on?
The car battery is 12 V and how it can turn on your IKEA Dioder lights?!
Hi Hayley, the led lights are actually 12v AC current. It’s the transformer that converts them to DC, so if you remove that you can wire them directly to your battery.
Une solution pourle chauffageen hivers ?
This was super helpful. I’m going to do the same in my van. Is the regulator in addition to a charge controller for the batter or is it unnecessary if you have a charge controller?
Hi Tilda! Since this blog post I have changed my electrical setup slightly, I now don’t have the regulator I fitted the LED Lights directly to the battery. By charge controller do you mean a voltmeter or are you fitting a solar panel with a charge controller?