bright enough?

In my experience I have found the 3528 LEDs are about half as bright as the 5050s, I also like the warm white. I have also found a big difference in venders on eBay. Whatever you decide on, buy 1 or 2 and try them before buying a whole bunch.

We've converted some of our overhead lights to LED using the bright LED. We've found that the milky cover lens on the fixture does reduce the effectiveness of the light. We've switched some of the lenses out and it's perfect (unfortunately, for the price of a new lens cover).

tenbear wrote:
In my experience I have found the 3528 LEDs are about half as bright as the 5050s, I also like the warm white. I have also found a big difference in venders on eBay. Whatever you decide on, buy 1 or 2 and try them before buying a whole bunch.

5050 LEDs although better than 3528 LEDs are not all that efficient.

5050 LEDs are .22W each and only give off about 10-15 lumens per chip.

on the other hand there are much more efficient LEDs, if you can find modules which use 5730 LEDs you will be much better off.

5730 LEDs are 1/2W each and can net you about 100-120 lumens per watt.

Basically 6 of the 5730s can give you more light than 48 of the 5050 LEDs..

Color, well that is up to you but LEDs really vary drastically in the color aspect.. 3000K to 4000K will get you pretty close to incadescent and 5000K-6500K is going to get you the harsher blue/white color..

5050smd pancake type led's are plenty bright. Don't understand how anyone could stand their rv to be any brighter? We've had the 5050smd pancakes since the day after we purchased our trailer, $1 each by the way off of ebay. We don't full time, but we do spend every weekend since August in the trailer and are very very happy with these bulbs.

so how many 5050smd are on those "pancake" things you mention? I haven't found anything with 5050s for anything like a dollar.

If the pancake style of light fixtures, another option would be to replaced the existing lights with some that come with LEDS in them (that aren't a conversion). Available on ebay for around $15 and up.

Our 2014 TT came with pancake lights in them with OEM LEDs in them. I removed them all and replaced them with the light fixtures shown below from Kaper II. They have roughly the same footprint as the original lights and cover the existing screw holes. They're only about 1/2" thick.

I would get warm white lamps. The interior of RVs these days is typically warm colors (cabinets, flooring, upholstery, etc.) and warm color lamps will look and "feel" better for that reason alone. Cool color lamps will clash and seem unnatural and harsh. There's some that prefer cool over warm though and won't do without it.

I prefer the overhead lighting in our living/kitchen area to be on the brighter side for task lighting and cleaning. On 3 sides, we have puck lights under cabinets & slides and when watching TV, just have one set of the puck lights on. Our bedroom only had one pancake light and it was way too dim so I added a 2nd light (as in pic). I also added a puck light in the shower because that was dim too. Lighting levels are just a matter of personal preference. I also installed a couple of the removed LED pancake lights in our pass-through which works great when it's dark out.

If cost is an issue, LED replacements is the way to go and they are very inexpensive these days (on ebay at least).

while this won't work for everybody..(those needing pancake squares)

i bought a 16ft roll of 5050 leds (hundreds) for $12 on Amazon
cut them into strips and wired them into my Fluorescent fixtures

last count i have 263 leds in 13 strips in 6 fixtures

and still have a little left over

I can't take credit for the idea..or order location
got both from another thread here on rvnet

I thought these were the 5050smd. My exterior bulbs are. These I think are actually 3528's? Not sure. I went back to my purchase history and the add doesn't specify. Very bright. We use these lights ALLOT. No failures after 3 months. $15 for 20 bulbs. The scorched bulb socket that you see is what we found in every light fixture the day after we picked up the TT. The 194 halogens were way too hot for these fixtures. Fire hazard from the factory IMO.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/20-X-White-T10-Wedge-Trailer-RV-Landscaping-24-SMD-LED-Light-bulbs-W5W-921-168-/111428032908

Moderator edit to re-size picture to forum limit of 640px maximum width.

Those are 3528 LEDs. You can tell the difference by the soldered contacts on the side of each LED. 5050 has 3 individual contacts on each side while the 3528 has only one wide contact on each side. Each 5050 has 3 individual LEDs in each package, thus the 3 contacts on each side.

We have clear lenses in our fixtures and use 18 & 13 5050's depending on the location of the lights. The 18's were too bright in certain spots.