What replacement bulbs am I looking for?

[wh33t]

Hey forum,

My girlfriend and I have are living in a 33ft Nomad Travel Trailer. I believe the year is 1988. I have attached a photo for reference. We bought the trailer a few months ago and renovated the inside and all is pretty good so far, however we need to replace all of the interior lights now and I'm not sure what bulb type I am looking for.



We are currently getting out electricity from 400w of solar panels so I'm hoping to get some LED's in there.

Any tips in the right direction would be great.

[oldbeek]

add to previous post, seller is, 3c-made-in-china (ba15s 102smd led 1156) also selling cool white but I have not tried the cool white.

[oldbeek]

I bought a bulb direct from china for $3.00 ea from e-bay. It is a direct replacement and brighter than 1141. Ba 15, 102smd that is 102 led panels on the bulb. about the size as my index finger.

[Dtaylor]

lights
There should be a number on the base. The 1156 bulb is a standard automotive bulb. The down side is the put off a tremendous amount of heat. If you go with a standard bulb, use the 1141. If you can afford the LEDs use the link above

[Almot]

400% Mex import tax on Chinese items, yes, but if you bring it with you from another trip North, they don't care - too much - whether it's made in China or not, and besides, there is an exemption on the first $75 PER PASSENGER. So if you and your friend both go North and then back to Mex, you can bring $150 tax free.

Also, there is a good US store: http://www.commandelectronics.com/led_bulbs.html

Your "old" bulbs, whether 1141 and 1156, have same BA15s base, only the wattage slightly differs between the two.

In LED, the biggest problem (besides unpredictable Chinese quality) is - unknown color. You get 6 bulbs and 1 or 2 may have slightly different shade, even though all 6 are supposed to be the same "warm white". Still, pay attention to color temperature in specs. Warm White or color temperature 2700-3500K is - usually - the shade close to that of your old bulb. Bright White or Cool White and higher K number means farther from yellowish and closer to bluish.

[tenbear]

Just in case you didn't realize it, the 1210 and the 3528 LEDs are the same thing. 3528 is the metric size while 1210 is the US size. 5050 is metric.

[wh33t]

tenbear wrote:

wh33t wrote:
How do you find the LED light vs the incandescent. I see the lumen output of the led panels seems rather low and Im curious how they compare. Your panels specifically seem lower than the 48-5050 panels I was looking at. How do you find your led replacements?

I find the light from the 36-1210 LEDs that I bought very close to the 1141 bulbs they replaced. I also bought some 36-1210 from a different vender and they were much dimmer and much poorer quality, and cheaper.

I guess it depends on your reason for converting to LEDs. I did it to reduce the power consumption. The LED panels I bought draw about 0.2A. The 5050 LED is actually 3 LEDs in the same package, are about 2x as bright and draw about 2x the current. Of course, the current drain depends on the series resistor If the resistor is a higher resistance then the current will be less and the light will not be as bright. All LED panels are NOT created equal.

LEDs are directional. The panels direct most of the light down and while the lumens may be less, the light in the area lit by the LED will be quite bright. Lumens is a measure of the total light from a source. BTW, I don't trust the advertised lumens on eBay.

The only way you will know if a particular light is what you will like is to buy 1 or 2 and try it. There are differences in the fixtures, differences in the series resistors and differences in the LEDs themselves.

Hope this answers your questions.

It does. Thank you and to everyone else who chimed in.

[tenbear]

wh33t wrote:
How do you find the LED light vs the incandescent. I see the lumen output of the led panels seems rather low and Im curious how they compare. Your panels specifically seem lower than the 48-5050 panels I was looking at. How do you find your led replacements?

I find the light from the 36-1210 LEDs that I bought very close to the 1141 bulbs they replaced. I also bought some 36-1210 from a different vender and they were much dimmer and much poorer quality, and cheaper.

I guess it depends on your reason for converting to LEDs. I did it to reduce the power consumption. The LED panels I bought draw about 0.2A. The 5050 LED is actually 3 LEDs in the same package, are about 2x as bright and draw about 2x the current. Of course, the current drain depends on the series resistor If the resistor is a higher resistance then the current will be less and the light will not be as bright. All LED panels are NOT created equal.

LEDs are directional. The panels direct most of the light down and while the lumens may be less, the light in the area lit by the LED will be quite bright. Lumens is a measure of the total light from a source. BTW, I don't trust the advertised lumens on eBay.

The only way you will know if a particular light is what you will like is to buy 1 or 2 and try it. There are differences in the fixtures, differences in the series resistors and differences in the LEDs themselves.

Hope this answers your questions.

[westend]

48-5050 LED panels will be significantly brighter than your originals, especially in the cooler colors (5000-6000K).
As tenbear suggests, order a few at a time and see what floats your boat. I agree totally with his assessment that not all LED's are similar, even if constructed the same.

[wh33t]

tenbear wrote:
The fixtures look like plastic so I suspect the bubs are 1141 bulbs. 1156 bulbs get even hotter than the 1141s and can cause damage to plastic fixtures. Mine had 1141 bulbs.

I replaced most of my 1141s with 36-1210 warm white LED panels.

These are the panels I used.

I also used some 18-5050 cob lights but I don't remember who the vender was.

There are considerable differences between lights sold by different venders so buy a couple and see how you like them before buying a lot of them

How do you find the LED light vs the incandescent. I see the lumen output of the led panels seems rather low and Im curious how they compare. Your panels specifically seem lower than the 48-5050 panels I was looking at. How do you find your led replacements?

[tenbear]

Another thought: in another thread it was stated that items imported from the orient have an import duty of 400% when imported into Mexico. This could make converting to LEDs pretty expensive. I have no personal experience on this.

[tenbear]

The fixtures look like plastic so I suspect the bubs are 1141 bulbs. 1156 bulbs get even hotter than the 1141s and can cause damage to plastic fixtures. Mine had 1141 bulbs.

I replaced most of my 1141s with 36-1210 warm white LED panels.

These are the panels I used.

I also used some 18-5050 cob lights but I don't remember who the vender was.

There are considerable differences between lights sold by different venders so buy a couple and see how you like them before buying a lot of them

[westend]

There are a variety of LED choices that will directly replace those bulbs. The Asian E Bay sellers will have the cheapest offerings. I replaced all of my 1141's with either SMD 36-3528 or SMD 48-3528 LED flat panels in warm white. I could have purchased them with the base adaptors to plug in but chose to replace the fixtures as well.

Here is one of my DIY fixtures with one of these LED panels, cost was less than $4, inclusive:

[LarryJM]

wh33t wrote:



Here are some pictures.

That is either an 1141 or 1156 with the 1141 drawing 1.44A and the brighter 1156 drawing 2.1A. Not sure what that fixture is rated for so try the 1141 first. Better yet measure one or several of the existing bulbs and see what the resistance is.

Here are the specs:
1141: http://www.donsbulbs.com/cgi-bin/r/b.pl/1141~usa.html
1156: http://www.donsbulbs.com/cgi-bin/r/b.pl/1156~usa.html


Larry

[wh33t]

Here are some pictures.