Which led bulb is best

[melissajean0]

Between these two, which is brighter? Does anyone know?

[Timbodeuce]

I bought mine early and paid $20 apiece for them. Still worth the cost.

[oldbeek]

bought 68smd lights with that base from china e-bay. Under $3.00 ea. Much brighter than oem bulbs.

[travelnutz]

Timbodeuce,

I don't know where you bought your "cobs" from being high in price? Our 54 cobs came from LEDLight.com and only cost $7.47 each and with no sales tax and had free shipping. They are 5 watt and 500 lumen in "warm white 3000K" and what they call "super white 6000K" now but when we ordered ours they were listed as 5000K-5500K. Not that it'll make any real difference to your eye.

The 5 watt LED draw from them is actually a brighter cleaner well difused light pattern in an RV room/area than the 41 watt draw incandescent bulb they replaced which means you usually will turn on even less lights and having even less current draw from your battery/batteries. We also couldn't be happier as we'd converted both our RV's and now have our large home and my big pole building (7 ceiling 100 watt equiv LEDs) converted along with nearly all outside security lighting (2 large yard lights and 3 double bulb motion detection spotlights) also changed to LED. All completed approx 3 months ago.

Brighter true lighting and our electric use is WAY down which means the monthly bill is a lot lower, just under $100/a month lower, compared to the last 2 years for the same calendar month periods. The LED's didn't replace incandescents but rather replaced flourescents which already used approx 1/4 of the current of the same lumens as incandescents do. That almost $100 an month savings over the last 3 months, the LED's more than paid for themselves and going forward that $100/mo savings adds up to about $1200 each year and the LEDs have an 18-24 year life. $21,600 savings over just 18 years even with no increase in per KW costs. Kind of really gets your attention and that's only going from flourescents to LEDs. $86,400 savings going from incandescents!

Like a free new high end big optioned out 5th wheel. OHHH, the torture!

[Timbodeuce]

We have replaced all of our incandescent bulbs with the cobb type and couldn't be happier with them (except for the price). We dry camp a lot and they make a huge difference in battery longevity. The trailer also is much cooler now.

[Lar_s]

Soft white, and leave them on all day for a few days so your brain becomes accustom to the light, otherwise we humans are often distracted into looking at what we perceive as different... a recommendation from Rob Lowe...

[travelnutz]

Mine all came from LEDLight.com and they are great, bright, all matched the color specified, not expensive, and free shipping. 27 SMD 5730 10-30V AC-DC. Ordered 3 times so far as we had 2 RV's to convert and 4 days from ordering to received. Bought 54 LED's from them. LEDLight is in Phoenix, AZ and we are in West Michigan.

Replacing bulb sockets can be done using metal sockets and soldering on or if plastic sockets are used, gluing them or pop riveting them on (should use aluminum rivets so they don't rust) works fine too.

[Mile_High]

Be careful on cheap - I bought a batch of bulk LED on ebay, and although I ordered warm they were actually all over the map in color temperature. Some were so yellow they were almost bug lights, others were blue - even blueish green. I suckered and am not using any of them.

[travelnutz]

rreynold51,

We found our range hood lighting to be too dim also. So I took the socket out and soldered a new socket on and put one of the LED cob style bulbs in and reassembled. Less than half an hour of work and what a difference. Wife gave me an attaboy! haha, I like it too!

Did the same to the refrigerator inside light as the incandescent tube bulb gets blaring hot and it's a refrigerator that uses energy to keep cool so why put heat in it? A 5000K cob bulb and it's bright and whiter inside now than with the 12V DC Incandescent bulb and no heat now and my wife loves it.

[travelnutz]

I have both the paddle and the cob LED lights in both daylight (5000K) and warm white (3000K). 10-30 volt DC. Tried them side by side in several dual bulb ceilingd fixtures in our RV's and there's quite a difference in true room lighting and pleasantness. All were in the 500 lumen range as that's only what I will buy for normal illumination. Night lights are less of course.

The paddle type had a real bright light pattern directly under the fixture but dim/poor lighting going away from directly under the fixture. The very bright glare in the fixture from them draws you eyes to it and it actually hurt to look at them as it was more like a spotlight. Also found them objectionable in the outside RV mounted patio lights due to the spotligth effect. They do work fine in fixtures in the kitchen that are mounted under the cupboards so you don't point right at your eyes as they shine down on the counter space/sink/range/.

The Cob type had a much wider range of difused lighting and illuminated a much larger area with pleasant light. More like a glow rather than the spotlight effect. Did not hurt the eye when looking directly at the fixture and hardly draws your eyes to it.

It depends on what you like for lighting inside an RV as opinions differ.

Yes to the warm white in all living areas but daylight works good in the kitchen as food colors are brighter and more detail is seen. Outside patio lights are more of a personal choice as one is soft and warm light and the other is more like daylight but can be harsh and shrill to the eye at night when the surroundings are dark.

We found the cob type in warm white 3000K to be the best illumination by far and far more pleasant to be in and all are this in the Dinette, LivR, BthR, BedR and outside patio. Just select how many to turn on far adjustable desired light level. 5000K daylight or bright white cobs in the kitchen as they are double fixtures and either one or two bulbs can be turned on so there is adjustability.

[rreynold51]

Does anyone know which blub we could use to replace the light in the stove exhaust hood? The little 12v blub in there doesn't provide much light and it gets really hot when its one. Really need more light cooking...

[JTrac]

Depends. When I was replacing all my halogens with led's I went thru the same thing with the brightness issue. Tried a few that just were not bright enough. All I know is what I read but I finally focused on the lumen rating of the bulb, when I could find it. The more the brighter. Most of the bulbs I used are in the 300 to 500 lumen range, brighter than the 200 or so rating for the halogens they replaced.

You will see the bulbs listed as a 30-5050, 15-5730, etc. The first number is the SMD (surface mount device) count which is how many of the individual led's are on the bulb. The second number is the size of each individual led. A 5050 is 5.0 x 5.0mm and so forth. Each size has a certain brightness so a bulb with a high number of smd's may not be as bright as one with a lower number of another size of smd. The 5730 and 5630 seemed to be the brightest. I used 15-5730 pancake style in our ceiling and they are just right for us. I used 30-5050 wedge based types in our sconces.

We like the soft white versions but that is an individual taste. The bright whites were too bluish for us. I don't think either of the bulbs you show would work for us. I tried some of the cob type in the size you show and they were not near bright enough. I found some good info at cabinbright.com and got some of my bulbs from there. Some I got on Amazon.

[Lar_s]

You'll also want to make sure they have a wide range of volts to run i.e. 8-30 instead of something narrow, i.e. 10-14... plus other considerations.

Just a thought

[melissajean0]

I ended up getting 10 of the paddle ones because it was cheaper in bulk, but if they don't work as well as I want I'll try some other ones. Thank y'all for your input.

[Mile_High]

Try 1 of each before you replace all of them. The paddle style do throw more direct light, but they also are real visible inside the fixture. The omni-directional will look more like the bulb you have now.

All preference.