Interior LED's

above about 5500k, and LED tends to get a bit blueish

I have the cool white bulbs in my garage of the toyhauler. I think they run in the 5K range, and I got them on eBay. I have the ones that are a direct replacement for the bulbs, with the round structure (not a panel) and a base that plugs in without an adapter.

I think they are just a little on the 'blue' side for my taste, but the color does clarify things when I am working back there. They are plenty bright, but they do give the area a more 'sterile' look.

Anyone using LEDS with a 5500K - 6000K temp? They are branded as cool white, just wondering how bright they actually are. Thanks.

SMarquez wrote:
I put some LED's in my trailer but they are a pretty harsh white. Which LED'swill give a warmer light tone? Is there one? What is the favorite source for them.
Thanks

I bought some from Benlo's in Baldwin Park, they have a little display box that shows the different types and Tom is very knowledgeable on the subject, highly recommend them and they're not too far from R.C.

I also have the under-counter puck lights and bought them online but don't remember where. All in all replaced about four interior and the porch light with LED's and am very satisfied, those are the ones we use the most, the rest can stay incandescent as they're not used enough to matter, some get too carried away with this IMHO.

The subject of color temperature is starting to drift.
2700k is about the average incandescent color temp you see with the typical household lamp. Color temperatures in an RV drift all over the place because you never have a constant supply voltage when on battery, or shore depending on what the charger is doing and supply voltage has a huge effect on color temp.. Either way, 2700k is the target for a homie look. The nice thing about LED's is that they never drift in temp due to voltage variations.

There are Warm White (WW), Cool White (CW), Daylight, and others that are just plain ugly. If you want a residential look, stick with the WW LED's. I went with the CW LED's that hover from 3000-4000k on the kitchen counter and in the microwave because it really makes colors pop. The only place I went cooler temps than that was in the exterior storage because I was after brightness over color accuracy, and the only way to get LED's into the warmer range is to dye the lens, and that causes the brightness to taper off.

What ChooChooMan74 said, M4 Products, tell him Derwud (aka Darryl) sent you and I will make sure he takes good care of you!

I have tried a lot of different style led retrofits. Some, not so good. Some very good.

Have some installed now for almost a full dune season, and will be keeping this particular set up, as they seem to work the best for me.
24-5050 led panels in one side of my dual bulb fixture,and
48-5050 led panels in the other side. I like the 5050 led panels, instead of the older cheaper 3528 panel because 5050 have 3 leds in each led cluster, more lumen.

I use the bright white led, as I don't care for the soft yellow led. I've tried both. You might want to try both yourself and make the choice depending on how it looks to you after it is installed in your fixture with the diffuser cover on. Give them both a chance for a few nights to see what suits you best. Don't jump to any conclusion at first glance, use them, live with them for a while, and then decide.

The fixture cover/diffuser seems to diffuse any harsh light from the led panels for me. It took some trial by error to realize how usable the bright white is compared to the yellow soft white.
Many fellow campers notice the difference. At night, with leds on inside, my TH draws lots of attention. Have had many people come over to my TH and comment how it looks great from the outside when all lit up inside with the bright white led's. I agree, and the light inside is bright, very easy on the eyes imo.

Reason I use 2 different size led panels,,, it gives me the choice of how much light I need.
The switch in the middle of the fixture allows me to run 1 or both led panels, either the 24 or 48 led -5050 or both. Mostly I keep only the lower wattage 24-5050 in the on position, and use the wall switch to turn on and off the fixture.
But when having many guests in the TH,etc... or need maximum light, both get turned on.
With both led panels (24&48-5050) on, much more light than both stock 18 watt 1141 bulbs produced. And 2.2 watts is not even hardly a drain on the battery, compared to 2, 1141 bulbs @ 36 watts.

Approximately, on my meter, the 24-5050 panels use .8 watts, the 48-5050 use 1.4 watts. HUGE power savings compared to the 18 watts the 1141 bulbs use.


Ebay has many led light vendors that sell the panels. I've bought some that are not up to par with others, its a******shoot. The last vendor sold me 10, 24-5050 and 10, 48 5050 for under $50 shipped from China. They are bright and work great. They came with 3 different bulb adapters, all wrong. I needed the 1141/1156 base. So broke off the glass on the old bulbs I removed, and soldered the wires from one of the adapters on to the base. Works well, but took some time to do the soldering. The vendor I used last, seems to have dropped the led panels from their store..?

The 3m(?) adhesive tape on the back of the panels seem to hold up well for the 6-8 months I've used them. Time will tell if a tape upgrade is needed, but for now, the tape they came with has worked good. We'll see how a summer in PHX covered storage treats that Chinese 3m tape. I'm betting its probably close to 110* inside the TH even in covered storage, on a nice PHX summer day...

jmo

I replaced all 13 interior bulbs, and porch light with matching base LED lights. They were all much brighter no dull yellow glow. Frankly I enjoy the MH at night, I like to read, and I write, 4 novels published so far, and a crisp light helps. I don't have that feeling of camping out that the dull yellow glow gives.

I purchased all my LED from Amazon at around $11 each. Some may not want to invest that much money in lighting, but I learned a long time ago the RV is to enjoy, not worry about the resale value. I have way more invested in it than I'll ever get back, and it's been fun to do it, adding conveniences as I find the need.

I spent around $100 a few years back deciding what worked best for us... For us the WARM WHITE LEDs most duplicated the INCANDESCENT automotive bulbs.

Then I ran into RFI being generated from some REGULATED TYPE high dollar LED Boards. This interferred with the HDTV when using the OTA BATWING antenna, NOAH WX ALERT Radios, and my 2M/UHF Ham radio operations mostly when we was camping off the power grids. That was another $100 mistake for getting the wrong LED boards for us.

Finally I just purchased cheap non-regulated $4.99 LED boards from china and that is what I am using today. I purchase a hand full of spare boards but have not had to use them yet after three years of use.

36-1210 SMD LED board

There is a TON of reading you can do from others on the forums... Might save you a couple hundred of dollars haha...

Having said this of course only you can decide what will work best for you. There is also the idea of just buying 'ONE ITEM' and see if works OK for you...

Roy Ken

Take a look at M4 Products. They specialize in RV bilbs, and are very helpful. Here are a few good videos from RV Geeks on the subject.

RV LED Lights Part 1

RV LED Lights Part 2