Upgrading to LED lights

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rockman said:
Our interest is not the $ savings, but the battery savings when boondocking.
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You have to burn a lot of bulbs for a long period of time before you start to affect the battery life. Most people don't sit around at night with a whole lot of bulbs turned on. Most are watching TV.
 
rockman - I installed them and they work and look GREAT!!  I would highly recommend the ones I bought if you desire and like the bright white lights.  I also installed them in the 12 volt landscape lighting around my house. They are so-o-o-o much better than the small incandescent lights I was having to replace on a regular basis at about $1.25/bulb from Lowe's.  So far they have done great.  I'm hoping the will last MUCH longer than the invades cents.
 
legrandnormand said:
Make sure when you order them to choose the proper lumens... if it ain't written or without details, just don't order those.
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I never order unless BOTH lumen output and color temperature are given.  Most reputable vendors provide that information; the absence of it indicates to me that the seller is trying to deceive uninformed buyers.
 
Just a couple of notes; I replaced all of the lights in our MH when I bought the rig:

It wasn't cheap as I selected true equivalent (or grester) lumens and my preferred color temperature (about $300 for ~ 30 as I recall)

Original lights that we run all day average about (8 ? 20W = 160 W); that's about 128W of heating.

I haven't replaced an LED since (~ 3 years). I estimate that at least half would have failed by now!

I can actually read by the reading lights now.

I much prefer the new color, but that's personal preferance.

You certainly could save some over what I paid, but probably not over half buying individually regulated LED's, particularly as most of mine are specialized applications. Frankly, for me the convenience and higher quailty light easily justify the cost. YMMD.

Ernie
 
Even though most of my LED purchases have been from established sellers such as superbrightleds.com  a couple of months ago I bought some "direct from China" stuff on eBay because the specs looked good and the price was so low that I wouldn't mind it if they didn't work out.  I was amazed that the product was exactly as advertised and every one of the items worked and continues to work.  The light output was rated at 525 lumens, which is a lot, and these are extremely bright.  The color temperature was described as warm white and these are among the most pleasing LEDs I have seen.

Here's the item I purchased, even though the seller is not the same one as I dealt with.  I suspect that a lot of these direct-from-China sellers are the same or are at least selling the same items.  At $10.99 for 10 of them how can you go wrong?  http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-X-G4-Reading-Light-525-Lumen-15-SMD-5630-LED-Warm-White-Bulb-Lamp-12V-24V-AC/231747292381?_trksid=p2047675.c100040.m2060&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140107095009%26meid%3Dfeefe863f29d40869b22290647635be3%26pid%3D100040%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D3%26sd%3D231747292381
 
Good information here on LEDs.
It is NOT always watts that = Brightness.
Look for color temperature.

http://www.eaglelight.com/category/lighting_tutorials.color_temperature/
 
I replaced all lights with good quality LEDs, very happy with the results, right color, brightness and savings in energy usage, which to me is important.

However, a few inexpensive LEDs I tried worked fine but wiped  out the off the air TV reception. Buy and try a few before going all out.
 
OLDRACER said:
However, a few inexpensive LEDs I tried worked fine but wiped  out the off the air TV reception. Buy and try a few before going all out.
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It is the voltage regulators on the LED that causes the interference.  Since the price has come down on all LED's, you can no longer judge which have regulators by the pricing.  If you want the TV to work, you have to buy cheap lamps that are unregulated even though they may have a shorter life. 
 
Not sure that is correct at all, the good quality bulbs I bought WITH regulation do not affect the OTA TV, the cheapies without wiped TV out. And I checked the specs.

I repeat, buy a few and try them.
 
I sampled one of the NextWave and they do put out more light than my paddle style from Amazon. I did not buy the NextWave because of being $17 each. I think I'm going to try the original bulbs and just do some testing.
 
this thread reminds me... a while back I emailed the sponsor, RVLEDBulbs, asking for advice on which bulbs to order, base don light output and color.  Never heard back.

Here's the email I sent.  perhaps some of you can help.
Actually, I think I'd prefer something with slightly fewer lumens than the incandescents, because DW prefers low level lighting.... although I don't want to go significantly dimmer because..... well sometimes I just need to see things  ::)

Found you by your add on rvforum.net
my rv has 921 bulbs
I don't know how many lumens they produce to compare to your LEDs
I would like a replacement LED that has the same color as the incandescent
and with a brightness equal to, or slightly less, than the standard 921.

Can you advise?
 
blw2 said:
this thread reminds me... a while back I emailed the sponsor, RVLEDBulbs, asking for advice on which bulbs to order, base don light output and color.  Never heard back.

Here's the email I sent.  perhaps some of you can help.
Actually, I think I'd prefer something with slightly fewer lumens than the incandescents, because DW prefers low level lighting.... although I don't want to go significantly dimmer because..... well sometimes I just need to see things  ::)

Found you by your add on rvforum.net
my rv has 921 bulbs
I don't know how many lumens they produce to compare to your LEDs
I would like a replacement LED that has the same color as the incandescent
and with a brightness equal to, or slightly less, than the standard 921.

Can you advise?
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I spoke at length with the folks over at M4 (http://www.m4products.com/) and while they're not cheap, they seem to have bulbs for almost every application, and 3 color options for most. You'd have to talk to them re lumens but I'm sure they'd be happy to help. For many of the bulbs the lumens are listed.
 
So its been almost 2 years since any replies to this thread. I am looking at replacing the lights with LEDs and looked up this thread. Are any of you who bought the cheapy lights from China still satisfied with those bulbs? Would anyone change their recommendations?
 
The only comment I can add is to try to get the "warm" lights and not the "cool white" ones as they are finding the Blue light has negative effects on your eyes.  My Dr's have advocated that I change the light in my house to the warm ones.  I just got an app for my phone that reduces the blue in the light and it seems to help.
 
cadee2c said:
So its been almost 2 years since any replies to this thread. I am looking at replacing the lights with LEDs and looked up this thread. Are any of you who bought the cheapy lights from China still satisfied with those bulbs? Would anyone change their recommendations?
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We replaced our lights with these...(1) 2 pk 1156/1141 Base LED Replacement Bulb 270 LUM 10-24v Natural White 25007V (total 2 bulbs) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0176S4F1I/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_A4VlAbGYTJG6Z
Actually we prefer the cool white over the warm, warm is way dim
 
Im with Jim. I prefer the warmer ones. Had an office with large windows for 10 years and never used my overhead fluorescents. On dark stormy days, or the few evenings I worked past dark, I had a small lamp with an incandesent light and a gold colored shade.

The lights Im looking for are the T5s, the long tubular ones. The LEDs are very expensive,,,, $20+ each... which is why I was wondering about the ones from china.
 
My advice is to calculate (estimate) exactly where you DON'T need much light and buy smaller LED arrays for those spaces. For instance, the light over the bed (just above my knees) needs very little light. The reading lights, however, require a bit more for aging eyes. 

If you start by buying a variety of sizes, you can switch them around to find what works best where, and then order more of what you need to finish out the project.

Every place you scale down the electricity usage is where you've extended your boondocking battery life. We've finally replaced all the traditional lights inside our RV, and the difference in electrical usage is dramatic.
 
cadee2c said:
So its been almost 2 years since any replies to this thread. I am looking at replacing the lights with LEDs and looked up this thread. Are any of you who bought the cheapy lights from China still satisfied with those bulbs? Would anyone change their recommendations?
Click to expand...

To directly answer your question I bought >30 very inexpensive "direct from China" LEDs (<$1.50) for all my "puck" lights nearly 2 years ago.  I made sure to buy from a vendor who specified a color temperature and didn't just say "warm white".  Also , I bought from someone who specified the lumen output of the bulbs.  All the LEDs I installed are still working great!
 
To directly answer your question I bought >30 very inexpensive "direct from China" LEDs (<$1.50) for all my "puck" lights nearly 2 years ago.  I made sure to buy from a vendor who specified a color temperature and didn't just say "warm white".  Also , I bought from someone who specified the lumen output of the bulbs.  All the LEDs I installed are still working great!
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Great to hear. I will be checking into them.
 
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