In this section we’ll discuss brightness, temperature, styles and how to power your lighting.

Power

Most campervan lighting runs on 12V as it requires minimal energy consumption. LEDs use significantly less power than halogen or fluorescent lighting, meaning they won’t drain your batteries at night. It is possible to install 240V lighting in your van such as the kind you’d find in a house, however it would need to be run through an inverter to convert your leisure batteries’ 12V current into 240V, so this would be significantly less energy efficient.

Most LED lighting consumes just <1amp or 4-10W meaning it could run for days on end on a single battery. Therefore LEDs are usually considered to be the best campervan lighting and all of the products mentioned in this article are LED.

Brightness

The brightness of lights is measured in Lumens, however the power draw of a light is measured in Watts. The higher the Wattage the higher the Lumens and the brighter your lights will be, which is important to consider as you may want dimmer lighting above your bed area and brighter lighting in your kitchen for example. A dimmer switch can also be installed to easily switch between work mode and relaxing mode.

300 - 500 lumens would be for dimmer areas where you might be relaxing at night

500 - 800+ lumens would be brighter for areas where you are working, cooking etc

Some lights are dimmable for adjustable brightness while some are not; a dimmer switch cannot be fitted to non-dimmable lights.

Temperature

The colour temperature of lights is measured in Kelvin and understanding this can help you to set the mood in your van. Warm lighting can give your space a cozy feel, while cool lighting is helpful for brightening up areas for working in and cooking.

5500 - 7000K = cool white (blue-ish hue)

~ 4000K = neutral white

3500 - 1000K = warm white to amber

Styles

There are three main styles of lighting: ambient, task and accent:

Ambient lighting is the primary light source in a room and provides uniform overall lighting

Task lighting is bright and focused on a specific area to help with activities 

Accent lighting can highlight specific features in a room or set a mood

The first two are somewhat essential to van living, but combining all three can create a distinct aesthetic or mood in your van’s living space.

There are four main types of interior campervan lighting: spotlights, strip lights, dome lights and reading lights. Fairy lights also get an honourable mention purely for decoration.

Spotlights

Spotlights (also known as recessed lights, downlights or puck lights) are used for ambient, task and accent lighting. They are recessed into a surface and offer bright lighting without a visible light source. They are generally used in the ceiling or under cabinets.

We recommend: These 12V recessed LED ceiling lights from Dream Lighting are a quality option that won’t have you ripping down your ceiling a few months after the build to replace them, unlike cheaper alternatives. They offer warm white lighting that is bright enough when fitted as a set of 4 or 6 to illuminate your van’s living space without being too bright or clinical, consuming just 2W of power per light. They also come with smart matte black or silver bezels and are easily fitted with screws. We have these in both our Bedford and LDV vans.

Strip lights

Strip lights can also be used as ambient, task and accent lighting. They offer a lot of flexibility and can be placed anywhere but common areas are around ceiling edges and above and below cabinets. They are attached using an adhesive backing, and can also be cut down to size or joined with connectors to create longer circuits, as well as being remote controlled. The only downside is they’re often prone to snapping and cheap ones fail easily.

We recommend: These LED strip Lights by Lepro come in bright white, warm white or multicoloured and will last significantly longer than cheaper brands without the transformer burning out, the individual LEDs failing or the adhesive backing letting go. They connect directly to your van’s 12V power supply and consume just 3.2W per meter. We have these around our LDV kitchen and they can happily withstand the heat of cooking.

Dome lights

Dome lights offer a diffused uniform light across the whole space from just a single unit. These are usually mounted on the ceiling and are used for ambient and task lighting. They require minimal installation as one to three dome lights is typically enough to light an entire van, however they do protrude more than recessed lights so if standing height is an issue these may not be suitable. They usually come with on/off switches attached which means there’s no need to wire a lightswitch.

This LED dome light by Facon is a low profile dome light that measures 5” across and consumes just 6W of power. Available in cool white or warm white it delivers a bright but diffused 420 Lumens of light.

Reading lights

Reading lights are placed next to the bed; these are used for task and accent lighting. They’re suitably dim for relaxing in the evening and particularly handy for when one person wants to read and the other wants to sleep. Some also have built-in USB charging ports.

These 12V LED Reading Lights from Dream Lighting come in a range of styles to suit any interior, are easy to install, vibration-proof and draw just 1.9W of power.

Fairy lights

Push lights and fairy lights are low-tech lighting options that run on batteries and can be placed anywhere in a van. Push lights are a cheap option for a budget van conversion that install instantly with adhesive backing strips and run on battery power. They’re not suitable for long-term use though and they’re not very durable. Meanwhile battery-powered fairy lights are always a great addition to a van, will create a cosy evening setting and won’t draw any power from your van’s battery bank.

We recommend the Luminoodle 5ft LED string lights, which is waterproof, USB rechargeable and hangable anywhere with the use of magnets and a strap. Or the traditional copper wire battery power fairy lights work well in most scenarios.

We knew not the first thing about van building or DIY when we started, but you can pick most skills up from friends, family or if all else fails, YouTube.

Get to know your tools, practice on scraps of wood and metal before you commit to making any irreversible cuts, and always measure twice cut once. But even so, a few wonky lines on a cupboard aren’t the end of the world, and it all adds to the overall charm in the end.

ADD IMAGE OF OUR WONKY LINES

Whatever your timespan is, double it- that goes for budget too. These things always take twice as long as you expect even with the best planning and goodwill. There will always be unexpected hiccups and unforeseeable events so give yourself time, and be kind to yourself if you don’t manage to achieve everything you set out to in a day.

Our LDV conversion took us 10 months in total, in between working full time, partly due to delays caused by the cold, wet winter weather. When we made improvements to our van the second time round it was during the Spring when the weather was considerably better, so the time of year may be an important factor to consider if you can’t find an indoor space to convert your van in.