LED bulbs question

[alex392]

Hi people!
I want to ask people who have the lED light in the RV trailers. Do you consume less energy? Is there sense to change all current lamps to LED?

Thanks

[WReeder]

I looked into changing my florescence into LEDs and the other light fixtures but because I do not Boondock much I could not justify the cost to do it

[jesilvas]

Welcome. You will find with just a little research they do use less power, much less. Sometimes just a 1/10th of the power an incandescent bulb did.
But do more research. Don't buy the cheapest thing out there. These are RVs, not houses. The rumble, and shake, and vibrate, and have voltage swings, and you normally want a bright light, not dimmer.

[hdossett]

Originally Posted by alex392

Hi people!
... Do you consume less energy? Is there sense to change all current lamps to LED?

Thanks

Do they consume less energy? Yes! ~80% less that incandescent, 30 to 60% less that florescent.

Should you change them out? Only if you dry camp a lot, or, you don't like the bulbs you have, or don't don't like the heat from them.

My thinking is that changing bulbs is easy, so buy cheap as long as you can find the K color and lumens you like. I have had to change very few defective $1 bulbs and got replacement form another vendor (Ebay) for about the same price and have had no problems with the replacements.

For the florescent replacement I used strips (5630 neutral ~4300K) and removed the ballast. I was able to add a switch and use half the light in a few cases, or add in a small strip w/switch to use as a night light or an early morning coffee making light!

Just change out the ones you use most often and see what you think!

They will make a difference in how long the batteries last when you are deep in the woods!

H

[Waiter21]

I went through and replaced all the lights in my Mirada with LEDs. Two incandescent bulbs draw about 3 amps. two LED panes tht put out the same light (level and color) draw about 1/2 amp.

I did not use replacement "bulbs", I hardwired small 36 LED panels to the light fixtures.

On a couple of the fixtures I added resisters so I could dim the lights.

Upgrading coach lights to LEDs | 2001 Coachmen Mirada 300QB

..

[fastidious]

Originally Posted by alex392

Hi people!
I want to ask people who have the lED light in the RV trailers. Do you consume less energy? Is there sense to change all current lamps to LED?

Thanks

There is one other issue that should be mentioned as well and that is the HEAT produced by either incandescent or florescent lights. Both of these light types produce an amazingly high amount of heat when in an enclosed fixture, especially the halogen bulbs used on units. I replaced all the bulbs in my unit with LED's and the heat produced from them compared to the original bulbs is like comparing the heat from a flashlight to a hair dryer. Amazing difference and when you are running an air conditioner or two to keep an RV cool, the lights can make a difference during those quiet, humid summer evenings...

[Steverado]

I have LED's in my Palazzo, I purchased them from Banggoods.Com very good quality and 1/4 the price of other LED's.

[Gocoffeer]

Alex: I have converted to the lamp replacements in my Bounder. I have had a nice burden removed from my use of the house battery system (we boondock with our rig). I offer that I saved about 60% of the electric use that the incandescent lights were using in the exchange and that was important to my use, since I run off battery very often. I did leave the fluorescent lighting but we rarely need to turn those fixtures on.

[Hikerdogs]

As mentioned LED's do consume far less energy. But before change over you need to assess the type of "camping you do. If you never go off the grid, or only do it on a rare occasion for one or two nights it may not be cost effective.

LED lights come in various colors and levels of brightness. There are both total replacement fixtures, and "bulbs" that will replace current bulbs in standard fixtures.

This site has a great tutorial as the differences between colors, brightness, power consumption, polarity, and just about any other questions you might have concerning LED's

M4 Products

We purchased the Samsung Elite series replacement bulbs from them for our 2013 Winnebago Adventurer. They have internal circuitry that will allow them to operate even if the polarity in theory original fixture is incorrect, and they operate over a wide voltage range.

[mel s]

Originally Posted by Hikerdogs

As mentioned LED's do consume far less energy. But before change over you need to assess the type of "camping you do. If you never go off the grid, or only do it on a rare occasion for one or two nights it may not be cost effective.

LED lights come in various colors and levels of brightness. There are both total replacement fixtures, and "bulbs" that will replace current bulbs in standard fixtures.
This site has a great tutorial as the differences between colors, brightness, power consumption, polarity, and just about any other questions you might have concerning LED's
M4 Products
We purchased the Samsung Elite series replacement bulbs from them for our 2013 Winnebago Adventurer. They have internal circuitry that will allow them to operate even if the polarity in theory original fixture is incorrect, and they operate over a wide voltage range.

Hikerdogs
You are correct.
I don't see the value of expensive LEDs as a replacement for either the incandescent or florescent lighting in my coach...which has never been problematic in the 14 years, (117k miles), I've owned and used my coach in all different camping situations.... from weeks long boondocking with no shore power to extended RV resort living with 50A shore power.

BTW, me thinks many RV owners use LED lighting to "keep up with the Joneses).
I have more important things do do with my $$ than replace perfectly good lighting with LEDs, but "to each his own".

Mel
'96 Safari

[alex392]

Wow! I even couldn’t expect that I will get so many replies from you guys.

Well my budget is not very big now. I think that I will try to change just a few lamps and see the result. I want to take not expensive LEDs, maybe here https://www.mrosupply.com/search/?q=LED if they ship to my home

Originally Posted by Gocoffeer

I offer that I saved about 60% of the electric use that the incandescent lights were using in the exchange and that was important to my use, since I run off battery very often.

I noticed that there are more and more problems with my battery. We aslo run off it quickly during the last camping.

[paz]

Originally Posted by alex392

...Well my budget is not very big now. I think that I will try to change just a few lamps and see the result. I want to take not expensive LEDs, maybe here https://www.mrosupply.com/search/?q=LED if they ship to my home...

As has been said, LEDs will save a lot of electricity over incandescent. However, unless you do a lot of boondocking and really need to save battery power, it is hard to justify the cost.

That being said, the new 5th wheel we bought last winter came with all LEDs inside. I don't know whose lights they used, but we are impressed with the brightness and quality of the light. We think the standard blue-white color of LEDs is very harsh and unattractive. Fortunately, our manufacturer used soft white LEDs which simulate the color of incandescent lights very well. If you do end up replacing lights, look for soft white or warm white if color is an issue for you.

[Gocoffeer]

I bought all my replacements in small bundles from different EBay venders. I replaced 3-6 lamps each season. Started with our most used lights.... I paid about $2 per blub. The warm white is our favorite intensity.... I believe my lamps have 15 LEDs per lamp. Might be 9....but they do a decent job when we need them.

[MurphyMan]

Originally Posted by Waiter21

I went through and replaced all the lights in my Mirada with LEDs. Two incandescent bulbs draw about 3 amps. two LED panes tht put out the same light (level and color) draw about 1/2 amp.

I did not use replacement "bulbs", I hardwired small 36 LED panels to the light fixtures.

On a couple of the fixtures I added resisters so I could dim the lights.

Upgrading coach lights to LEDs | 2001 Coachmen Mirada 300QB

..

On a trip this year we ran out of battery while doing some basic boondocking, our first try at it. I soon replaced all the incandescent bulbs with LEDs I found on Amazon, the cheapest ones I could find.

I hate them. I hate the ghastly glow, makes my wife look half dead.

I was encouraged when I found the LEDs and I also I like you're DIY spirit and the way you glued the little LED panels to the ceiling. I would try that, except we have a fabric headliner. I may give it a go though. Our RV is parked a few miles away in storage, but maybe I'll hop over and take a look and see if your method will work for me.