Led Lights...

[Ole_Man_Dan]

Today I took the first step toward replacing my RV lights with LEDs.
I bought two LEDs to replace the lights nearest the kitchen living room area. I plugged them in and my first observation is that they are brighter than the old yellowish lights. Good light.
I'm replacing them one fixture at a time.
Pricey at $31.00 for two bulbs. (Bought at Dandy RV.)
I bought two to see how bright they are...
Work fantastic. No heat generated, not like the old incandescent bulbs.

This came about after camping at a campground that lost power for 18 hrs. during a tornado. I cut back to one light on and got by...
Motivation was to have at least one fixture with LEDs to use in emergencies. Should last a long time.

I may buy two a month till I change out all my lights. (Retired)

[IAMICHABOD]

I have to agree with tenbear on replacing all of my lights at a low cost.

I tried a few and the best I found was from 2011_led On Ebay he has many types and after using him 4 times I have not had any problems.

Shipping is fast and the quality is very good and a lot cheaper than the ones you buy from the stores here. They all come from China, why pay $10 more a light,

[WyoTraveler]

I was over at Harbor Freight and bought a flash light that has 27 large leds for $6 and some of these companies are selling replacement led lights for $2 or $3 each because they can.

[JiminDenver]

Like some of the others, we replaced our incandescent bulbs with LEDs from ebay that be had now for less than $2 a unit. We can light the trailer front to back for less power than used by ONE incandescent.

[tenbear]

I have replaced all my coach light bulbs with LEDs I bought on eBay. Most cost between $3 and $5.

If you buy on eBay, buy 1 or 2 and try them before buying several. Not all venders are selling good stuff and their claims are sometimes not very accurate. I bought many of mine from 2011_LED and am happy with them.

[Ivylog]

I've been buying LED lights for 5+ years and prices changes almost every week. OP I hope the $15 led's you bought were made in the USA although there are not that many really made in USA as many are only assembled in the USA. While I'm off topic the future of LEDs is the CREE chip and there is a US company CREE Corp that is currently the best deal for home lighting but not in 12V. 12V led on Ebay that were $10 two years ago are now $2 but they are not the new cree chip. Currently cree's in 1156 are too directional for many inside RV uses but that will change.
I have a lot of G4 ceiling lights of various types as I experimented to see which would be the brightest. I'm still experimenting as I ordered one of these although I'm afraid it's too big and I'm waiting for these to come down in price as they use the cree chip BUT the beam angle is only 30 degrees.
I would not buy any led that uses the little round bulbs as the ones that I bought for my house five years ago still work BUT they now only put out 60% of their original light.
I'm in the process of changing my fluorescent lights to led so this post may be of help. For inside use I only buy the warm white led. For some outside use the bright white are OK.

[jcsb]

Except for our 1 Floresent fixture in our coach, we replaced all bulbs and some fixtures for about $60 - 75. Fixtures replaced with strip LED lights, that required adding a switch. All our 921 and 1157 bulbs direct replacement.

Loads of research on this forum and the web. Learn about Lumens (brightnees of light). As a practical matter all LED's come from China, its just a questions of do you buy from a US distributer or direct. We did both. Turnaround time from china was about a week.

[dockmasterdave]

You gotta look around more. I bought a pack of 20 941 style bulbs on e bay new for $75. At $3 a bulb it's not so bad. I have a friend who gets them even cheaper. You can PM me for more info.

[Shadow_Catcher]

When our trailer was being custom built I supplied the marine lighting fixtures designed to take a G4 bulb. I have found G4 LED arrays from Ebay that work well and so far have not had any failures. I do have a couple of replacement arrays and for about $9 for 10 of them... You DO need to watch lumen's.
We spent 8 days on the north shore of Lake Superior relying entirely on solar, we love quiet.

[Golden_HVAC]

Hi,

I have answered many questions on Rv.Net, and one that I wanted to tell a lot of people about is not spending to much on LED lights. For the cost of changing 20 fixtures with $15 bulbs, you could have installed a large solar panel that can run the whole RV as well as supply power to the old lights.

Then I ran across the 24 LED panels. They have 5050 LED emmitters that put out a lot of light per small square (5.0X5.0mm). Each panel puts out about what one of the old 1156 bulbs did before conversion. They are only about 0.1 amps each. Cost is only about $2 each if you buy about 10 at a time. I recently bought 50 of them for $60, or $1.20 each. I installed some one a friend's house, all around the parameter, powered by a 26 amp hour wheelchair battery, and a pair of 45 watt solar panels that I removed from my motorhome.

So it can be less expensive to start replacing the bulbs with the LED panels. I installed two panels in each side of my bathroom light, so I run 4 of the panels, using 0.4 amps, and it lights up the bathroom really well.

The small indicator 12 volt lamp on my pump switch went out, so I could not tell if I had left the pump on or not. I used 12 LED panels on each pump switch to replace the 17 year old factory lights, and they light up the bathroom and living room (kitchen) where the switches are located, giving plenty of light to move around the RV at night, without being so bright to not wake anyone.

AliExpress.com Do a search for 5050 LED panels. THen look for 24 LED panels, and 12 LEDpanels if you like.

The 5050 panels are 5.0X5.0 mm LED emitters. The 3512 is 3.5X 1.2 mm. They are smaller and less bright. They are a little more blue than the incandescent light that is being replaced, I have gotten used to that color. My friend is showing off his LED lights that run for free to all his neighbors, and loves the look of his house now.

You can also search for LED flashlights, solar charge controllers, and many other products. Almost anything you can think of. My new favorite flashlight has a LED CREE T6 light, with a pair of rechargeable 18650 LiOn battery. It is 1600 lumens, and can shine brightly on the cement, in the sunlight.

LED flashlight

Always remember that saving power is one way to extend your battery life. The other way is to install some solar panels. SunElec.com You can buy a 100 - 120 watt solar panels for around $150, and that will provide more power to the battery.


Good luck with your LED conversion.

Fred.

[path1]

That's how we did it also, little at a time but each bulb was $29.00 And I hope they last a long, long time. We can really tell the difference when boondocking and using only battery power. They really do help.

[calamus]

Check out Ebay or Amazon.com I have been looking for led's for my boat and have seen lots of 1156 base replacement led's for alot let than that. good luck