12V LED Structure Lighting- the pros and cons

You can buy warm-white or even amber or yellow LED's or LED strips, no painting required.

The smart decision was to go with 12V DC in the first place!  Tons of lighting options from the automotive world.

As GRJ suggests, take a look at 12V DC LED strips.  For building lighting it's hard to imagine a scenario where a screw-in/bayonet LED bulb would give a better modeling effect.  In other words a typical 12V LED screw-in/bayonet bulb might be, say, 1/4" to 1/2" diameter.  To scale (1:48), that would be a 12" to 24" diameter light bulb!  That would be quite the elephant-in-the-room so to speak.

If you need to pack more lighting into a small area you can double/triple up on LED strips running them side-by-side or you can buy 12V LED modules with multiple LEDs.  Here's a 12V module with 36 warm-white LEDs along with a typical 12V LED strip.  In both cases, the per-LED cost is, say, 2 or 3 cent each on eBay with free shipping from Asia.

I like that plate one Stan, what's an item number for that one?

That particular one might be 122004901722, 76 cents free shipping.

But just search on 12V COB LED and you get over 10,000 choices in different wiring, connector, # of LEDs, etc. 

For inquiring minds, COB = Chip On Board which is a manufacturing technique to put, uhh, chips on a board! 

Thanks Stan, that's some good info.  I also like the plate one and can see it behind some window signs as well as on ceilings.

Bruce

Thanks Stan, I figured out the search for COB and indeed see tons of them.  I liked the form factor of the one you posted.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

You can buy warm-white or even amber or yellow LED's or LED strips, no painting required.

Yes John, I realize that but the decision to go with soft white automotive LEDS was made a while back. Next time around I may buy amber LEDS  for interior structure lighting, but the tinting does allow for some unique possibilities. You can just tint  2-3 out of 6 LEDs on each bulb assembly for a different effect. Perhaps I am splitting hairs but that's the way I do things. Still undecided if I should continue to go with all LED's for lighting. LED's may outlast bulbs but I don't see that there is much if any power savings to be had. You really need that miniature AC/DC rectifier board so initial cost is more but replacement cost is about the same.