Replacing 1156 bulbs with LED inside

[Y-Guy]

Over the summer we only camped without hook ups, so I went through and removed 1/2 of all the bulbs in the double housing to cut down on power. Now that we're back in hook up season I've put them in, and like how much brighter it is at night.

So now I am considering investing in replacing the bulbs in most of the frequently used lights with the flat panel LED replacements from superbrightleds.com 1156 PCB series LCD Lamps

I'm curious if anyone has used these in their Winnies and your thoughts.

If you haven't seen them, here is what they look like.

[Y-Guy]

Over the summer we only camped without hook ups, so I went through and removed 1/2 of all the bulbs in the double housing to cut down on power. Now that we're back in hook up season I've put them in, and like how much brighter it is at night.

So now I am considering investing in replacing the bulbs in most of the frequently used lights with the flat panel LED replacements from superbrightleds.com 1156 PCB series LCD Lamps

I'm curious if anyone has used these in their Winnies and your thoughts.

If you haven't seen them, here is what they look like.

[jimandsue60]

I have replaced the bulbs in my cargo bays and in the shower with the LED bulbs. Those are the only places the 1156 type bulbs were installed in my coach. The newer style brite whites work really well.

Jim

[John_Canfield]

Very interesting idea - thanks for the head's up. I'll have to explore this.

[rvcarpenter]

Do you know how much power this would save over the traditional 1156 bulbs?

[Y-Guy]

rvcarpenter here is what I've found comparing a "standard' 1156 bulb to the LEDs


Standard bulb: 2.1A - 300 lumens
1156-PCB-W36t: 123 ma - 57 lumens
1156-PCB-CWHP9: 190 ma - 120 lumens

The power savings is there, but the drop in lumens is a concern.

[rvcarpenter]

at 120 lumens that's a 90 percent drop in power comsumtion. although it's also only 1/3 the lumens. I thin I'll stick with the standard because I like the light.

[XBoater]

I have replaced a couple of standard bulbs with the led panel you show. The light emitted was definitely less with the led light, so much so that I returned to the standard bulbs and did not continue with the exchange.
I did see an adapter the allows you to use Xenon bulbs in the 1156 socket. I did not continue to research it though. I believe the Xenon had at least the same lumens and used about 40% less power. My fear was that the life was about the same but the cost was more.

[Y-Guy]

XBoater, thanks for the real hands on info. I think I could live with less light, but for the cost I maybe better off just adding more batteries to compensate for the higher power of the standard bulbs.

[livingaboard]

I am not a fan of the LED's yet. Unless you are spending some bucks, you are not going to get the quality of light you want.

If you are just needing light to not run into things then go ahead and get the LED's

If you want functional light then fluorscent lights are the only way to go.

You can get a thin-lite dual tube light fixture for about $30. This is two 15 watt bulbs that puts out about 1600 lumens and draws about 2.2 amps. This is two 18 inch tubes

You can get a smaller unit with two tubes that draws about 1.4 amps and puts out about 800 lumens.

That is a lot of light for not much energy. You can also do what I did and retrofit the original tubes with a warmer colored bulb so you don't get the cold industrial type light color.

[kalynzoo]

I originally had a problem with the light in the closet getting HOT and crisping some items on the shelf. The LED solved that problem, although it is not as bright, but it is a closet. I have now put LED bulbs in the closets, a few outside compartments, and in the porch light. I give up some brightness for longevity and cool temp. I would not replace reading/work lights with LED until they increase the brightness.