Best LED Interior Light Bulbs

[smcrea]

Hi,

I'm going on vacation next Friday and was looking for some replacement 12v interior bulbs for my trailer. I've bought some before but they have a COLD BLUE light which we REALLY dislike!

I'm wondering if there is a make of bulb that gives a warm white light and still saves me power.

Preferably on Amazon Prime so I can get them on time! 🙂

Thanks!

[2manytoyz]

Most of these LED assemblies have load resistors on the board rather than an actual voltage regulator. Less expensive, but the trade-off is a bit more heat.

As with any products I get from China that have a double backed foam tape, peel it off before installing the product, and use a 3M/Scotch VHB type of tape. Very good stuff! It's available at Ace Hardware, Target, etc.

LEDs have a plastic lens, not glass. They are VERY tough compared to a glass lens, and since it has no element, they withstand very high shock.

I've been buying rolls of LEDs on Amazon. I just added 3' long strips to each of the overhead aluminum beams in my TTs storage compartment. Now only $11 for a 16' roll:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002QQ1YOM

[Vulcan_Rider]

Stumbled across this today. These are a bit brighter than the real cheap ones, having more actual LEDs. Works out to about $2.40 each. I'm pleased with them. More than adequate light at night.


1 item sold by dt-autotech
20X 1156 BA15S RV Trailer 12V LED Lights Bulbs 68 SMD Warm White
( 191366197496 )

ITEM PRICE:
US $47.99

My transaction was through Ebay but I think the dealer sells direct too.

[Chandalen]

Ryan: I probably need to look harder then cause i have only seen the glass ones 😕 and they are usually pricey.

[ryanw821]

Chandalen wrote:
Naio:

The actual lights are hard to break (pancake or bulb type)

I have some LEDs that look more like the standard bathroom mirror plumb sized/shaped light. The are just blown glass over an LED bulb. They will break as easily as a regular bulb.

Every "enveloped" LED bulb I've seen has used plastic, not glass globes, but I suppose if you are buying higher quality LEDs they may use real glass.

[ryanw821]

Chandalen wrote:
For the bathroom where the lights are mounted vertically, I (meaning the wife who actually cares) found the round lights were better.

For horizontal (celing) lighting I prefer the pancake type.

That makes a lot of sense, all the lights in my RV are ceiling mounted and "fire" down, so the "panel" LEDs were really ideal, if I had any wall sconce, pendant, or vanity type fixtures I would probably go with the "cob" style LED bulbs myself.

[Chandalen]

Naio:

The actual lights are hard to break (pancake or bulb type)

I have some LEDs that look more like the standard bathroom mirror plumb sized/shaped light. The are just blown glass over an LED bulb. They will break as easily as a regular bulb.

[Chandalen]

Porig and Vulcan:

These are bright white, and there was no regulator inside. Before I had my voltages for charging correct 15v slowly blew one up that was on all the time.

RoyB:

For the bathroom where the lights are mounted vertically, I (meaning the wife who actually cares) found the round lights were better.

For horizontal (celing) lighting I prefer the pancake type.

[Vulcan_Rider]

RoyB wrote:
If there is no RFI Interference with either LED assy I would like the PANCAKE better as all of the individual LEDs would be on the same side of the fixture. The round assy would have some LEDs pointing up into the fixture...

Well it depends on what your priority IS.

The round ones are much easier to install.
The fixtures are made to reflect the "back" light, which incandescent bulbs have too.

If you want the absolute cheapest price and don't mind a little extra effort mounting them, the pancakes might be "better".

[Naio]

ryanw821 wrote:

Naio wrote:
Probably a stupid question, but are LED light bulbs as breakable as incandescent?

Depends on your definition of "breakable", MY LEDs have some fairly thin easily broken wires if you mess with them, but will they shatter get glass shards all over the RV, no, lol

That said the glass envelope of my stock incandescents was pretty tough, and filaments were designed for automotive uses to be vibration resistant, I imagine it would take quite a beating to actually break the glass or break the filament loose.

Thanks! I only have one non-battery light in my rig that I use regularly, and I was thinking of getting an LED bulb for it primarily for the breaking issue. I have not broken a bulb yet, but it sure would be a PITA -- hopefully not literally!

[ryanw821]

Naio wrote:
Probably a stupid question, but are LED light bulbs as breakable as incandescent?

Depends on your definition of "breakable", MY LEDs have some fairly thin easily broken wires if you mess with them, but will they shatter get glass shards all over the RV, no, lol

That said the glass envelope of my stock incandescents was pretty tough, and filaments were designed for automotive uses to be vibration resistant, I imagine it would take quite a beating to actually break the glass or break the filament loose.

[Naio]

Probably a stupid question, but are LED light bulbs as breakable as incandescent?

[Campfire_Time]

I haven't had any trouble with my flat panel cheap Ebay LEDs (48 per panel). Almost no heat, and the convertor fan barley runs now that they are all LED, so I didn't need to fool around with a volt meter to know they draw less wattage. Only one in 3 years has not remained stuck on. The key is cleaning the surface before installing.

YMMV, but as I said earlier, buy one or two and test them. Really, what can you lose?

Oh yes, and no regulators in mine either.

[ryanw821]

Well, I even the best LEDs get warm, the really expensive ones have huge aluminum heat sinks on them to dissipate the heat, there's always going to be wasted heat, still not such thing as a 100% efficient light, but even the poorest LEDs I've seen use quite a bit less current than the stock incandescent.

I have not hooked up a meter to mine, but a non-scientific test in mine shows they use much less. In my rig the converter fan would spool up to full (in reaction to the load on it) with ONE incandescent illuminated, it now takes FOUR of the cheap LED panels to spool up the converter fan. Yes they are cheap and far from the best you can buy, but they work, and even if they only last a few years, I'm probably still money ahead at less than $20 for ALL the lights in my RV 😉

[All_I_could_aff]

There are lots of poor quality LED bulbs out there. Just like anything else! Keep in mind that heat=energy consumed and most of us convert to LED interior bulbs to greatly reduce our energy consumption particularly when off the grid.
How disappointed I would be if I had replaced my cheap 1156 and 921 bulbs with LED equivalents only to later find out that I am burning exactly or similar electricity per hour!
And you can't even swear by the information on the packages, best to hook up multimeter in line and see for yourself how much amp draw when you get home from the store before you decide to keep and install or not.