LED batten too bright. Ideas?

GSPfan

Hi all,

So I went and bought 4 x 5 foot batten led lights for a gym room in my home. The lights are extremely bright, which isn’t a terrible thing but I’d love to somehow tone them down a bit but trying to think of a successful way of doing it. They aren’t dimmable.

I’m going to try open the batten up to see the internals but I’m guessing it will be similar to strip lighting with a few dozen LEDs. I’ll find out soon but is there any way to knock off say every third LED if it is similar to strip lighting?

Any other ideas to effectively dim an undimmable light?

Padre_Pio

Cover the light strip with a layer of scotch tape.

Apply more until you get the brightness you want.

GSPfan

Padre_Pio wrote: »

Cover the light strip with a layer of scotch tape.

Apply more until you get the brightness you want.

Interesting. Would the scotch tape melt though? The batten cover gets quite warm to touch. Have you ever tried that before?

Elliejo

Use a lighting gel.

GSPfan

Elliejo wrote: »

Use a lighting gel.

Good thing I googled it before I asked what it is. I was going to use a car window tint on the outside but that means the light fitting looks black when not on during the day. That’d look weird.

The lights I have are almost identical in look to these... https://forumlightingsolutions.com/led-batten-1500mm-5ft-6k-690-p.asp

You could try some frosted window film. Cut it to strips and tape it at the rear of the light. The more layers you put on, the more it'll diffuse and soften the light.

Alternatively, if it's an option for you (unsure of your set up) you can face the lights away from you, perhaps facing them towards the ceiling or walls, that way the light will hit the walls and bounce back into the room, much softer than the harsh bright lights when they face you.

Stoner

What is the lumen maintenance (LM) factor on the fittings.

Its possible that there will be a predicated fall off of light level from the lamp all leds do this, the less a lamp deteriorates usually the more expensive and better it is.

For example a LM50 factor over 3 years would mean that the fitting is expected to have lost about 50 percent of its intensity after 3 years. (Or less)
So you might be pealing these things things off the lamp later on.

punisher5112

Take the diffuser down and apply some spray paint from a distance to give it a bit of a block or buy some window tint and apply.....

If in future you want to add more etc look at the Philips hue range which are all dimmable from a device(phone,tablet) and fit these and also light strips change colour and bulbs depending on type you buy.


Great invention.

GrumpyMe

Put the led on a strip and have them illuminate the ceiling - up light as opposed to down light. something like this (not a great example but you get the gist)