LED bulb upgrade for interior

[CountryFit]

Maybe I was lucky, replaced the LED strips for the entire ceiling and small bulbs for bedside lights in 2012 from ebay and they are still good. Dunno what makes it but our battery pack is charged at 14v during the day by solar and stays at 13.0 - 13.2v after sunset and through the night when the lights are actually working. If you are running genset at the time of lights on and you set the charge volt at 14.0v or above, a likelihood of burning them is not a bad assessment.

An LED light bulb uses a little energy, probably a fraction of an amp at 12v nominal. I can tell you exactly how much a bedside LED light is using, if it helps, tonight.

[CountryFit]

Here are some numbers:

- When all appliances and lights were off, my inverter drew 5.4a (see 1st photo).
- Turned on one of the bedside lights, the reading was 5.5a, net 0.1a (see 2nd and 3rd photo).
- When only one of the ceiling lights was on, composed of 2 16" LED strips, the reading showed 6.5a, net 1.1a (see 4th and 5th photo).

So you know the consumption of electricity by LED lights is really insignificant.

[CountryFit]

It's 9:25pm now, the battery is at 13.17v.

[Roy1]

I bought 3 rolls of led lights for all my florescent lights. I used 2 twelve volt rows in each light. Since the lights were rated for no more then 12 volts and the voltage was going to be 13.5 volts Plugged in there is a good chance the lights wouldn’t last a long time. I figured out what size resistors were needed to drop the voltage on the led’s to 12 volts when 13,5 volts was on each light. I used 50 watt resistors so they wouldn’t get hot. When not plugged in the led’s had around 10.5 to 11 volts and still gave good light . It has been 4 years and no problems with burn outs. Lights with a voltage control would be a better choice but would cost a lot more and I needed a project at the time.

[birdhunter]

Problem I have is that with Trojan T105 golf cart batteries and most golf cart batteries, proper acceptance voltage at 70 Fahrenheit is about 14.9 volts. With temperature compensation it will go considerably higher than that in cold weather. Inexpensive LEDs without voltage regulation cannot take these high voltages.

[jwlce]

leds vary in efficiency a ballpark number for consumption would be around +/- 10% of a halogen of the same light output. As for cost I used g4 led bulb replacement as opposed to the "disk" format replacement of the dollar a bulb variety. Of the 40+ bulbs I had one failure out of the box. The rest have been running without failure for over a year. the different Types were selected bases on fixture type.

[efstewart]

Based upon my research and your recommendations, it seems like the m4 company offers the best LEDS for my coach. I plan to order as soon as they get all of my bulbs in stock.

[Raysir]

My 2006 Inspire already had been converted to LEDS all through. BUT they had the CCoach chrome fixtures with the small G4 bulbs. There are 12 lamps in the ceiling front to the bathroon. It wasn't at all bright for me so I replaced all the CC fixtures with Risestar 3.5 inch round fixtures in daylight bulbs like the new Newmars have. 6 fixture for $34.00. MAN...talk about bright. I had to order a dimmer from Amazon. A 12V LED,halogenhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C4UBMY6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 switch. I did have to make a small plate for the switch that I mounted the switch in and attached next to my ceiling switches. I definitely recommend this mod.

[srogers]

The PO of our 2000 Magna had thankfully already replaced all of the bulbs in the recessed puck lights with LEDs, and we finished the job by replacing all the other bulbs (including the rope "mood" lights).

What the PO did that is kinda cool - and we wouldn't have necessarily thought of it - is used a cooler/brighter temp in the overhead lighting in the ceiling of the coach and a warmer/less bright temp in the under cabinet puck lights. This gives us the option for really bright white light (like a supermarket, lol) if/when we want it, or warmer/less bright light the rest of the time. We're partial to 2400k-3000k color temp but have ended up liking the whiter/brighter light in the ceiling fixtures (it's probably 4000k-5000k, it's not blue like 6000k) more than we expected.

One thing you can do is order a few different color temp bulbs & install them to see what you think, before you go ahead and order 30+.

[efstewart]

I just ordered a total of 73 LEDs from m4, and they should drive next Tuesday. We will use mostly warm light for the ceilings, and some natural lights for select places like bathrooms, and the kitchen. Thanks for all of your ideas!