As implied in my previous post, upgrading your motorhome's interior lighting is a matter of 'shooting in the dark.' (Pun intended.)
It's easy to miss the mark in terms of what's ideal for you. You can undershoot, leaving you with a gloomy cave ... or you can overshoot, resulting in unnecessary expense and a painfully bright interior.
The key is lumens. A way to find exactly how many lumens suit you best is a bit of trial and error.
One trial and error technique is to temporarily use 120VAC household lights, varying the bulb wattage and light location until you find what suits you. (Using either extension cords or shore power.)
Do not, however, rely on first impressions. Spend some time in your motorhome with the test lights. Play cards, read, mess with your electronic tablet or notebook, cook, and other things that you normally do when using your motorhome. From this, you'll know where you need lights and how many lumens you need at each location.
The figures for various 120VAC household incandescent screw-base light bulbs are:
-- 40 watt ==> 450 lumens
-- 60 watt ==> 800 lumens
-- 75 watt ==> 1100 lumens
-- 100 watt ==> 1600 lumens
In case you didn't notice, there's no easy relationship between power consumed (watts) and light emitted (lumens). For example, two 60 watt bulbs produce the same amount of light as a single 100 watt bulb but the two bulbs consume 20 percent more electricity. (This in one of the ways the effort to ban bulbs greater than 60 watts has backfired ... people just replace the higher wattage bulbs with two or more lower wattage bulbs, increasing rather than reducing energy consumption in the process.)
Once you know how many lumens you need -- and where you need them -- you can start looking at upgrades that suit you.
