LED light replacement

I replaced all of the 1156 bulbs in mine with 48 SMD panels. They are MUCH brighter and use far less power. They do generate a bit of heat, but as was mentioned not enough to deform lenses or burn you when you touch them (unlike the 1156 bulbs). After some experimentation, I found the warm white was the best color inside and out on the porch lights. I got mine on ebay, too. Direct from Hong Kong. I haven't had any trouble with any of them yet (25+ of them).

LED TVs are the way to go, too. I put a Haier brand TV in my limo a couple of years ago because it uses a 12V power supply. With all the vibration and extreme temperature changes, the picture is as crisp and clear as it was the day I got it. I'm going to get one for the RV one of these days (or borrow the limo unit for RV excursions).

I use solar when I can because I do some boondocking. To keep my 12v. use to a minimum, I have replaced all my incandescents with LEDs. There IS some heat with LEDs. A child can touch the bulb or fixture without being burnt though. My issue was electrical consumption and I chose what are called 'warm white' bulbs for ease on the eyes. M4products has been building his business for a while now and offers a very wide selection of LED bulbs. I was very impressed with his SERVICE. I have not had a bulb failure of any type for about 2 years so far. I have 3 40watt overhead fluorescents (now 16 watts each) I have converted and can run all 3 for about the amount of electricity it took to run one before the conversion. I can use any 12v. light as a night light. My wife often leaves her reading light on all night and she always follows me turning out lights. The other significant conversion is trading out the old tech TVs for the $7.00 a year (electrical consumption) LED TVs. To sum up: Low electrical consumption .. Excellent light (better/brighter than incandescent) .. Short term expensive & long term thrift. NEVER replace another bulb (lazy). You can now hang your hat over the lamp shade! I'm not off the grid but I am next door to it.TV off the inverter, not shore line. Someone has to create a fix for microwaves...

Of the over 40 cheap LED I've bought over the last several years for the MH only two of the early non SMD have failed. One stopped working and the other one of the old style round LED started blinking.
I would not go with the bright white inside although I do use them outside. I would buy 4-5 of each white and try them in two different areas before deciding which color to get.
The future of LED is the Cree chip and I've been tempted to buy a couple of these and bend the leads 90 and install as reading lights but the price has to come down some more first.
PS: Where do you think the expensive 12V LEDs are made?

$1 a piece

I buy from here quite a bit. Takes a couple weeks for delivery but the prices are good.

What I found that worked for me was to try several different bulb lumens and brands until I found what I was looking for. maybe 2 or 3 lumens and brands. We liked the warm white for what we wanted. M4 Products http://www.m4products.com/ has a great compliment of lighting and not as expensive as other brands I looked at; 7 to 16 $$ each and they offer quantity discounts of 10 or more. The bulbs we did not use or like I placed in odd areas that we do not use often, storage compartments etc.

dsbarry wrote:
I bought 10 of these just to try them out. I have now bought a total of 30 and have changed all my bulbs with some spares left over. I know some will say to stay away from the cheap ones like this but They work great and for the price I just don't think there is downside. they generate zero heat and about exactly the same brightness as the conventional bulbs I replaced. I lied though. There is a slight downside. Shipping was very slow.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/251412658235



Steve

You can get them on amazon for 10, if your a prime member no shipping charge.

Golden_HVAC wrote:
Hi,

I agree that you really only need to replace the frequently used bulbs with LED's. Before finding low cost LED's, I was also thinking rather than spend $250 on bulbs, it was lower cost to spend $250 on solar and not worry about how much power the bulbs used.

For $250 you can buy 2 each 100 watt solar panels from this place. SunElec.com

$250 is chump change when it comes to our RV's. :B I think you need a combination of LED and solar if the goal is not to run the generator when dry camping.

**********************

I too replaced the most used ones and not the rest. I see no need to replace exterior marker or tail lights as they don't use battery power when dry camping.

Hi,

I agree that you really only need to replace the frequently used bulbs with LED's. Before finding low cost LED's, I was also thinking rather than spend $250 on bulbs, it was lower cost to spend $250 on solar and not worry about how much power the bulbs used.

For $250 you can buy 2 each 100 watt solar panels from this place. SunElec.com

For $13 you can search for and find a 10 amp solar controller. AliExpress.com Sure it takes 4 weeks to ship from China, but you will get it sometime.

You can also find 24 LED 5050 panels for about $1.20 each that will replace the conventional bulbs. What I did in my RV is take out the wires to the 1156 base, and connect them to the adapters included with the panels. Then plug 1 or 2 panels into each bulb location in my RV. Each panel used about 0.1 amps or 1.2 watts. For the porch light I used 4 panels, or 0.4 amps at 12 VDC, about 5 watts. It lights up the whole side of the RV and about 30' out.

Fred.

Bigdog wrote:
I am still of the mind that since I usually have a full H/U site when we go camping, I really don't need to spend the money to replace my lights with LEDs. I have been looking at several different complete taillight assemblies tho. There is one made for my Trade- winds as mine are from '00-'05 Ford ?Excursions. Problem is, they are about $200 a pair. But durn they look nice and do let folks know that you're gonna be stopping.

I am with you about FHU but I did replace the most frequently used lights over to LEDs due to reduced heat. The others were seldom used and I saw no point in replacing all of them.

crcr wrote:
I have been buying them for many years on ebay, with excellent results. I recently bought about twenty 48 SMD panels for $1.77 each shipped from China to convert the ceiling lights in our new TT. I have converted several TT's and several tow vehicles to LED's.

X2. Did the same thing. They worked out very well for us and we didnt have to break the bank.