tenbear wrote:
Have you measured the current drain of the 48-5050 panels?
Edit: Sorry, I just re-read your post where you said what the current drain is.
The interesting part is that I have 1 48-5050 panel that was from a different distributor than the other 7 since I was buying 1 or 2 at a time trying them out. That first one was slightly warmer in color (only noticable side by side, so I ended up using it in the closet so the color difference would not be noticeable), and the current draw was actually about 25% lower on that one. It was 0.28A while the others were all 0.37A each. Either way, it's a significant savings over the 1.41A that the incandescent bulbs draw.
While it's safe to say that ANY of the LED replacements will be significantly lower current draw than incandescents, figuring out exactly how much lower prior to actually measuring the drain is a hit or miss guessing game. Current will vary between different manufacturers and distributors, as well as different color temps. As I said, one of my 48-5050 panels draws 0.28A, while the others all draw 0.37A. By the math, the 36-5050 panel "should" draw 25% less than the 48-5050 panels, but instead it draws just more than half as much (0.2A vs 0.37A), although it is closer if you use my "warmer" 48-5050 panel as a starting point (0.2A vs 0.28A). Another example is the bulb style used in the porch light. That unit has only 13-5050 SMDs, so it would be logical to assume that the current draw would be at most 1/3 that of the 48-5050, right (13 SMDs vs 48)? Instead, it draws 0.27A, the same as the one "warmer" 48-5050 and just 25% less than the rest of my 48-5050 panels. Finally, the 5-SMD bulb styles that i used for the step light (in green) and my cab dome light (in white) each draw 0.05A, or 0.01A per SMD. But that current draw "per SMD" does not translate accurately to any of the higher number of SMD panels or bulbs.
So again, you can safely assume that converting to LEDs WILL save you significant current. But exactly how much is hard to tell until you actually buy & install them.
