LED Bulbs

[JoyandCon]

Thinking of converting interior bulbs to LED's. Any recommendations?

[triple602]

Replaced everything in my Winnie 31J and 2 friends Outback trailers with Chinese LED's from ebay and we're all happy.

[ronfisherman]

I replaced every bulb in our motorhome except headlights a couple years ago. Could not be happier. There are 13 florescent fixtures in the motorhome. Sat down at my work bench one day and rewired every one. No more heat and pleasant lighting. Here is a link to photos that I took of the mods. I used this thread to help me do the mods. Inexpensive Fluorescent to LED Upgrade

[Tdkeilman]

Only LED'd the lights I leave on the most, over the sink and outdoors. Bought from Amazon and they seem ok. Will consider replacing others as they begin to burn out. If I camped without shore power very often would consider doing it sooner.

[RambleOnNW]

Another factor with LED lights in RVs is the dispersion of the light. We have primarily flat, downward projecting LED units that don't have side glare. In our kitchen area I just replaced 2 flat units with cylindrical units that have LEDs on all sides. DW didn't like the side glare from the newly projecting row of LEDs, so I added a strip of masking tape to the inside of the lens to cut the glare. I didn't tape the rear side though and this now projects light into the pantry and fridge/freezer that we didn't have before.

[tenbear]

While 4x4van and I don't agree on color or the need for more brightness, I fully agree that paying the prices to US venders for the same thing that you can buy on eBay from China doesn't make much sense.

While I have had some failures of the first LEDs I bought, The failures were in the circuit boards, not the LEDs themselves. I believe they have improved the process since then.

It is still wise to buy a few to make sure that the lights are what you want, before buying enough for the whole RV.

[tpi]

ron.dittmer wrote:
I just went through an interior "Bulb Conversion" from standard incandescent to LED on my car. If your motor home uses the same bulbs as my car, then you could benefit from my experience. For my trunk bulb, I was able to find an LED replacement that was a whole lot brighter. CLICK HERE to see my write-up.

My motor home has florescent light bulbs throughout. I had looked into LED replacement bulbs for them, but I lost interest because of cost and wiring changes.

Thats my feeling on the fluorescent also. As long as the fixtures work properly there is not much point in changing them. The F15T8 lamps are far more efficient than incandescents. I did switch out the lamps to tri phosphor lamps which have more pleasing color rendering than the standard thin lite lamps.

I highly recommend RV LEDs though when replacing incandescent. I've used garden variety LEDs from ledtrailerlights.com and all have performed reliably and at brightness near or beyond the incandescents. Those high lumen Samsung lamps look interesting, but all of mine are working properly.

[4x4van]

There are alot of claims and counterclaims around about LEDs; "cheap is bad", radio/tv interference, warm white vs bright white vs cool white, voltage regulation vs current regulation, runaway heat...all I know is that a year ago I replaced every single bulb in my RV (over 20 bulbs) with "cheap" LEDs, mostly from China and most costing about $4 each. I have not had a single failure, no heat issues, no radio/tv interference, LOVE the light output (more), LOVE the color (bright/pure, not warm), and cut my current draw by more than 75-80%. I will never go back to incandescents in an RV, and I will never pay the ridiculous prices that some retailers and RV parts suppliers want.
Here's the post on my conversion. Scroll down a bit to see pictures; the color and light output is nothing short of amazing. Contrary to what some may claim, it CAN be done without spending an arm & a leg. The nice thing with the "cheapies" is that you can try a few different types without spending much, to see what works FOR YOU. That's key, since we all have different preferences (particularly when it comes to the "color").

[-Lqdskier]

I went with M4 products and am very happy with the color of light. I went with the "natural" color to avoid the bluish color and am very happy with them. It's amazing how much less power they draw.

[mlts22]

There are two schools of thought:

1: Buy the cheapies (I've bought a number for $1 per, free shipping, although it takes a few weeks for them to arrive.) The lumens are not great, but they save very much on battery power. They may interfere with radio as well.

2: Buy the good type that have their own voltage regulation, put out a warmer light, and more lumens. Those can be ten to a hundred times more expensive.

Since I only use my rig on weekends, I went with #1. If I were using it more often, I'd go with the good quality bulbs.

[jnolan72]

This is the LED I have replaced all light in my motorhome

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BMXVFG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

LEDwholesalers Bayonet Single Contact LED bulb Ba15s 8-30v Dc & 12v Ac 60 LED 5w 300 Lumen,Warm White 1422ww

No glare and no problems with any electronics devices

[Snowman9000]

I also use the ebay seller Tenbear recommends. Good products at good prices. No electronics issues on my end. Shipments take 2-4 weeks from China. He will take care of any defective ones. I have purchased several times from him and recommend it highly. Use warm white if you want a conventional looking color.

[Jopops]

I did it for the amp draw and for the simple fact that I don't want to worry about the bulb burning out. These bulbs will last longer than my rig will.

[RambleOnNW]

We changed out most of our incandescent lights for LEDs a few years ago with flat stick-on panels from Rigid Industries. These were 315 lumen 3-watt 3 LED units. We ordered some more later and they sent some more amber 300 lumen units. Just bought a couple more and they sent 350 lumen glaring white. Those were supposed to be to replace 2 that failed prematurely in the kitchen area after a few hundred hours. No color choices were ever offered. I put those 2 down in the compartments and went to a local rv place to get some of the tubular style. No more Rigid industries, no response to our complaints. We should be set for a while with 24 LED units.

[Free_Range_Huma]

These 2 videos by Rv Geeks were a life-saver for me; otherwise you can spend forEVer trying to figure it all out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KF_Ig8sutg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDYcODgaC_0

And P.S. Even for those who don't really care about the electrical savings while dry-camping, my secondary motivation was to reduce all the heat in the rig from the incandescents. Who needs that?!

[tvfrfireman]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet but when buying, make sure you check how many Lumen's the bulbs put out. That is the brightness. One bulb may be a few bucks cheaper but only have a third the Lumen's. I have found you get what you pay for. We do some off the grid camping and have solar panels. I only changed out the more frequently used light fixtures like above the recliners, the bed reading lights, and the bathroom.