12VDC Replacement Bulbs

[10forty2]

Okay...so I'm normally pretty savvy on repairing/replacing stuff. The wall sconces in our coach had gotten pretty picky about when they wanted to come on and off, so after a little diagnostic work with a meter, I found that the little pushbutton switches on each sconce were bad or going bad. I ordered new switches from PPL, installed them and now I have an issue of which replacement bulb goes in which fixture. One fixture has one bulb, another has two bulbs....kinda like the door locks and bin locks...there was apparently no consistency when they built this thing so I have a grabag full of bulbs left from the previous owner.

Any rhyme or reason to which bulb to use where? And before you say it, no....there is no writing or marking on the bulbs themselves. I can try to match up the shapes, but in the autoparts store they may LOOK the same, but some are lower voltage or have a different connection.

[MrWizard]

Watts
The bulbs at the auto parts store will be marked in Watts
The 18w and larger will damage the plastic lens cover on the RV lights
You want 11w or 12w lamps for RV lamps
Unless you buy LED which will only be a few Watts for the same amount of light

[10forty2]

Some plug in, some have a push/twist mount. All are single filament. All are 12VDC. BUT...when I look at the available options on the shelf at the autoparts store where 12VDC bulbs are readily available, there is a myriad of choices that all can look pretty similar. No biggie I guess...just didn't know if I was missing some obvious way to tell them apart. Thanks for the replies!

[Sam_Spade]

enblethen wrote:
Look inside the socket for the number of pins.

And match that with the base of the bulb(s).

You are making this much harder than it IS.

They are all 12 V......unless you have some strange arrangement where some only work when on shore power or the gen is running.

The LED conversion is a different discussion.
You need to understand how your present bulbs and sockets work before embarking on that.

[enblethen]

Look inside the socket for the number of pins. Single pin would use an 1141 style socket lamp. A double pin would use a 1076 style socket lamp.
I would also get LEDs.

[Executive45]

I agree with Mr. Wizard. The reason for the gloves, (cotton ones) are to prevent the oils from your hands from getting on the bulbs. The oils shorten the life of the bulb....so I've been told, I have not personally done that research...:W.....Dennis

[Kayteg1]

x2 on LED conversion. We don't use light a lot, but I replaced all bulb to have white light and also to have cool light in places like refrigerator and closets.
With LED panels at $1 a piece - you don't need to think long.

[MrWizard]

Use one fixture for testing
Put on some gloves
One at a time yet them out , turn them on
Sort them by brightness
The single lamp fixture will take the bright bulb
The two lamp fixture will take the lower less bright bulbs

[2oldman]

Assuming you have incan bulbs, dump them and get LEDs