Incandescent bulbs work, LED do NOT work

wa8yxm wrote:
Electroincs 102
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode.. When FORWARD biased they give off light.

What does Forward Biased mean?

A Diode is kind of like a check valve in a water line (You know what those are right. water only flows one way) Forward Biased means the voltage is applied in such a way as the current (or water in the plumbing example) flows.

However ... quality LED bulbs do have circuitry driving them that doesn't care about the incomng 12 volt polarity.

Read the answer to the 2nd FAQ question down from the top at the rvledlites.com website. RV Led Lites sells only high quality LED lites - many of which don't have many of the problems you get with cheap(er) LED lites:
https://rvledlites.com/greggwilsondesigns/full-width/

Electroincs 102
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode.. When FORWARD biased they give off light.

What does Forward Biased mean?

A Diode is kind of like a check valve in a water line (You know what those are right. water only flows one way) Forward Biased means the voltage is applied in such a way as the current (or water in the plumbing example) flows.

I've had LED lights in our motorhome since around 2008 - but not always the same LED lights.

All LED lights ARE NOT the same, so you have to shop for them after doing your homework so as to know as much as possible before you buy. You CANNOT merely "price shop" if you want great LED service in your RV.

I've gradually migrated to higher priced LED lights in several receptecles in our RV to get better performance. The latest one I just recently bought and installed was designed in the U.S. (but built overseas), and is not affected by the polarity of the RV's receptacle and is specially vented so that it will never fail from it's own internal heat.

Here's what to watch for in an LED bulb:

1. Does it have the right socket on it to match your RV receptacle?
2. Is it insensitive to polarity so that is doesn't matter how your RV receptcles are wired polarity-wise?
3. Are it's electronics designed so as to not create static noise in radios, TV's, etc..
4. Is it bright enough ... in other words, does it have a high enough lumen rating? (To duplicate a 40 watt incandescent bulb's brightness takes about a 430 lumen LED.)
5. How is it's light radiated so that you can aim it if necessary to better distribute it's light where you want it ... or does it's light merely shine in all directions - which makes it less bright where you want it.
6. What is the "temperature" of it's light? To duplicate the warm ambience of an incandescent bulb takes a WARM WHITE LED bulb. LED bulbs come in different types (temperatures) of the colors of their light, so you have to be careful to check this when you buy. We dislike the white/bluish or "natural daylight" type of light inside our RV, so all receptacles have warm white LED bulbs in them.

For what it's worth, our RV's outside light by the door that lights up the entire area under the awning for awhile had a natural daylight LED bulb in it. I eventually grew to really dislike this sterile hospital-room type of light when outside doing things in the evening. I replaced it with a high power, aim-able, cool running, polarity indifferent, no static noise, 60,000 hour warm white color LED bulb and wow ... how nice!

I had an experience with a home AC fixture having the same problem. A seniors forum acquaintance had bought a new LED fixture to replace an old incandescent one at the foot of the basement stairs. My first thought was that the new LED was defective. I brought a cord with me, hooked The LED light up to the cord and plugged it in - worked perfectly. Next I checked the voltage on the black to white wires coming out of the electrical box in the ceiling - 120 volts. Hooked up the fixture - No light. Took it down and by some fortunate accident I was a bit rough on the black wire and it pulled out of a wire nut connected it to the black wire from the breaker box.

I tossed the pigtail wire and connected the wire from the LED fixture to the service wire with the same wire nut and the LED light worked perfectly. Just a loose connection problem.

I want to thank you all! I really didn't have any ideas as to why that one fixture was working and why the incandescents DID work haha. The learning continues!

Munk888 wrote:
sorry the picture is gargantuan !

Click edit post and:

Insert a space then 'width=600' right after the '.jpg'

I have the same light in my Tioga and found the same problem, polarity is reversed.Leds don't like that,simple fix just switch the wires around.

Polarity is reversed. LEDs must have the correct polarity.

Please reduce pic size.

It's possible the polarity is reversed. May not matter to the incandescent but the LED is playing hard ball. :B