Upgrading to LED in S&B

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Tom

Tom

Administrator
Joined
Jan 13, 2005
Posts
51,911
We have/had a bunch of recessed halogen ceiling lights in our S&B house. I thought I'd start replacing them with LED bulbs. What a difference! Much brighter lights using a fraction of the power. I emptied Lowe's shelf of LED bulbs, and need to visit another of their stores.

Time to think of replacing lights in the coach with LED.
 
Tom said:
We have/had a bunch of recessed halogen ceiling lights in our S&B house. I thought I'd start replacing them with LED bulbs. What a difference! Much brighter lights using a fraction of the power. I emptied Lowe's shelf of LED bulbs, and need to visit another of their stores.

Time to think of replacing lights in the coach with LED.
Click to expand...

Tom,
Has the price on them starting to drop yet? A couple of years ago, it would have cost a small fortune to do an entire house.
 
We bought all our LED lighting for the house at Costco.  Much cheaper than regular retailers, and you can buy a hot dog and soda on the way out.  8)
 
We bought ours at Sams Club and began replacing our old lamps with the LED's as the incandescent bulbs died, so we didn't need to buy them all at once.  After doing that for several years, we've finally replaced almost everything.  Prior to using the LED's I replaced several bulbs per month.  Now we very rarely replace a bulb.  I'm sure that sooner or later we'll start replacing them.

Our TT has LED's and I can tell a huge difference in the rate of battery discharge when boondocking over our previous TT, and they're much brighter.  We only turn on half of the fixtures most of the time and still have adequate light.
 
Similar to the twisted floresent lights several years ago.    Seems it is just a way to get you the open your wallet for "The Green World"  I have the old incandesce 100 watt bulbs that are twenty-five years old, still lighting and burning.  My electric bill has not changed enough over the the years to justified changing them. 
The same way in an RV, the only reason to change is to make the battery last longer.

Wi1dBi11 
 
[quote author=Rene]Has the price on them starting to drop yet?[/quote]


Rene, they cost approx $12 for two "45W" Halogen replacements at Lowes. I must admit that I had sticker shock when I bought 26. Need to buy more of the same for the S&B, and need to buy some of the larger ones.
 
[quote author=Massmerch]We bought all our LED lighting for the house at Costco.[/quote]


Thanks. I'll check them out next time I'm in Costco.
 
I had a young lady I was "Dating" (sort of) in Georgia when I was stuck there.. and I also did some work on her house,  All LED lights.. THey worked great.. We replaced a porch light with a ceiling fan and light. The LED's and the light sensor I installed worked way way better than the original sensor and lights. Lasted longer too. Put LED's in the stairwell, and in a chandler indoors.  Went as LED as possible.
 
I have replaced all of the regular and fluorescent lights in the house except in the appliances. A couple of years ago Lowe's had a black Friday sale of $0.87. I bought at least 50. They did not have the bulbs this year.

I have replaced all of the bulbs in the motorhome except appliances and a couple near the floor.
 
    Just bought ten (10) 48? led light kits at Costco. Six (6) for our pole barn and four (4) to replace the fluorescent lights in the unfinished basement in our house (the last lights in the house to be converted). Just three (3) more 12? fluorescent fixtures in the 5er (these rarely ever get used)to change out, and just a few incandescent bulbs left in the little class c. Along with all of the plusses in the rv?s (longevity, save the batteries, and very bright), they are instant on in cool/cold weather. Sometimes we would go into the RV during the winter to work on something or prep for a trip and had to use a flashlight, because the fluorescents would ?never? get bright enough to see with. We?ve purchased from different suppliers and have had pretty good success. Though, in the early years...they were quite expensive and only came in lower lumen output. Now, pick your lumen, pick your color on the Kelvin scale...what?s not to like. Will start on all the outside equipment and toys next!
 
I replaced every bulb in the MH when I bought it ($400). Five years later we've had two fixtures fail, but we have yet to replace an LED. S anb B is unused for that period, that is we full time.

Ernie
 
As they fail or near end of life, I've been replacing both incandescents and fluorescents with Leds. Prices have come way down in the last couple years, but they still aren't cheap.  Don't expect to replace any in the future, though. At least not in my remaining lifespan!
 
Our S&B home is fairly big (4350 square feet) and we've been getting hammered by San Diego Gas & Electric's rates for a few years. During the Winter and Spring, our rate is .42 cents per KWH, and in the Summer and Fall, it's .51 cents per KWH. (We just got notified last week that the rates are going up again) Our electrical bills in the winter average a little over $400 per month, and $1000 per month in the summer.

About two years ago, we decided to replace all the interior bulbs, and exterior flood lights with LEDs, in an attempt to reduce our electrical bills. I had noticed a substantial difference in the RV's power consumption by switching to LEDs, so I assumed we'd see a similar reduction at the house. I never actually measured the "before and after" difference in power consumption, and logic tells me that there is a difference, but we've noticed virtually no difference in our monthly bills.

We really like the brightness and color temps of the LEDs compared to the fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, and I love the fact that I haven't had to replace any of the LEDs, but it was expensive to make the swap. As I type this, 14 KW of solar is being installed on the roof, and that will definitely bring our monthly bills down.

Kev
 
I, too, am converting...some as they fail and others proactively. For example, I've rid my house of all tube-type florescent lights with the exception of one 18" bulb over the kitchen sink (mainly because I have not had to replace it in the 23 years we've lived in the house!). Replacing the 15 4' florescent fixtures in my garage and basement within a short time frame did hurt the wallet but the result is well worth it IMHO. Time will tell.


I admit to also buying into the CFL hype years ago but I lost my taste for them after a few years and would actually replace them with incandescent bulbs as they failed.


My favorite LED project was the addition of two high-intensity work lights on my lawn tractor, though, for snow blowing duty. I know, the full timers say "what is snow blowing?"  ;D
 
Kevin Means said:
Our S&B home is fairly big (4350 square feet) and we've been getting hammered by San Diego Gas & Electric's rates for a few years. During the Winter and Spring, our rate is .42 cents per KWH, and in the Summer and Fall, it's .51 cents per KWH. (We just got notified last week that the rates are going up again) Our electrical bills in the winter average a little over $400 per month, and $1000 per month in the summer.

About two years ago, we decided to replace all the interior bulbs, and exterior flood lights with LEDs, in an attempt to reduce our electrical bills. I had noticed a substantial difference in the RV's power consumption by switching to LEDs, so I assumed we'd see a similar reduction at the house. I never actually measured the "before and after" difference in power consumption, and logic tells me that there is a difference, but we've noticed virtually no difference in our monthly bills.

We really like the brightness and color temps of the LEDs compared to the fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, and I love the fact that I haven't had to replace any of the LEDs, but it was expensive to make the swap. As I type this, 14 KW of solar is being installed on the roof, and that will definitely bring our monthly bills down.

Kev
Click to expand...

I've converted nearly all of mine to LED's as well.  Bought most at Ikea.  Maybe not the best bulbs, but so far so good for me and a good price.  I started doing them as they burned out, especially the ones in teh high ceilings.... then when I was about half way through I decided to just buy enough to do the rest.  I think I still have just a few in chandeliers or ceiling fans, that have funny bases on them.  Otherwise I'm all LED now.

Kev, if you had a lot of fluorescent bulbs like I did, that might be why you don't see a huge difference.  The wattage of comparable LED and fluorescent are close....like within maybe 1-3 watts for a typical bulb if I remember correctly.  Mine is similar in size to yours and had a lot of recessed can lights with flourescent bulbs.  That was a lot of bulbs!
 
Tom,,Another plus for changing those halogens is the fire hazard that recessed halogens present, they get extremely hot.>>>Dan
 
Good point Dan. I've often been concerned about the fire hazard.

We also have a smaller number of surface halogens in the S&B (in cabinets and alcoves). I need to find replacement fittings for those.
 
BruceinFL said:
Are LED florescent replacements plug and play or do they require rewiring?
Click to expand...


The 4' fixtures I replaced were complete units. I chose fixtures with a cord and plug but they also come for hard wiring. You can also get LED tubes of various lengths that can be used in a florescent fixture.
 
Led replacements for fluorescents come in two flavors. One is a direct replacement and runs off of the ballast. The other requires you to remove the ballast and wire 120 volts to one end.

I chose the latter as I didn?t want to leave the ballast as an additional failure point.

Tom
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 937 (members: 27, guests: 910)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,956
Posts
1,388,179
Members
137,709
Latest member
TheJackalope
Back
Top Bottom