How to convert to LED lighting

Vicky wrote:
A little background....my husband is pretty much physically handicapped and I do anything/everything with regard to our TT. Due to his disabilities, we don't travel but have our TT on a permanent site so I don't need to worry about saving the battery energy. I've done a lot of mods to our TT by myself. In an attempt to reduce the electricity cost when we stay for a month in the spring, a month in the fall and 3-5 days at a time in the summer when temps don't get over 85 degrees, I wondered about LED conversion...at least in some of the lights we use the most. Do you think the conversion would be worth the effort in terms of money (electric bill) and energy conservation? If the answer is "yes", please tell me what the worst thing is I can do to mess it up. I have a healthy respect for electricity but I've overcome fear to rewire outlets and light fixtures and install ceiling fans, etc., in our stick house. I've read and will re-read the suggestions many times; however, if the end result won't mean that much in the electric bill, I might pass. My primary use areas would include the lights over the sink/cook/prep areas as well as reading light and fluorescent over the dining table and at least one of the lights in the bathroom/shower area. Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you so much for your input.

The lighting cost in a small RV is really insignificant. Consider each lamp is about 1.5 amps X 12 volts, or about 18 watts each, and you probably only have on 4 or 8 at the most at once, the entire lighting bill for a month is not going to be more than about $4 of your electric bill. If you are using 150 watts per hour, X 4 hours per night, that is still only 600 watts per day, or at 9 cents per KW , less than a dime per day. The largest user of electricity is your propane refrigerator on electric. It can use 350 watts per hour, and needs to run about 8 - 12 hours per day in the summer, but less when it is colder out.

For refrence, a compact bar type refrigerator can get the same job done for about 200 watts, running only about 4 hours per day, or 800 watts total. The propane refrigerator will use a minimum of 3000 watts and upwards of 5,000 watts on a hot day.

If you have space for a compact bar type refrigertor, it might save it's purchase cost of about $90 in a year. The cost to run it all summer will only be a few dollars, even if you leave it on while gone from the RV.

So you could cut your electricity use for the lights in half or even to 1/3 of what is was, but the savings would only be about 5 cents per day, because the lighting part of your electric bill is less than 10 cents per day.

I have not found any acceptable direct replacement bulbs yet. What I am using is light panels with 24 LED's on the surface, about 2" square, and I have them glued to the location ofthe reflector, so they all point down. This provides all the light going down. each 24 LED 5050 panel is only about $1.65 when you buy 10 at a time. But I had to cut the wires going to the old lamp bulb holder, and use wire nuts (tiny grey ones) to connect the small wires to the new adapters. A small amount of work, but still I don't know your skill level.

Fred.