New LED's

[EMD360]

The 48 LED panels in 2700K color temp have gotten very reasonable in price since I first switched to them in the RV. Panels
Back then I ordered from China through ebay. This time I ordered from Bellevue, Washington. I got them in a couple of days before the promised arrival date.
I also replaced the hacked connectors I used. 1141/1156 connectors Different seller but the same shipping address--probably was the same vendor. Some of my hacks had stopped working and for $5.00 I was able to replace all of them and have more on hand. I am amazed.
Just bought expensive LED's for the stick and brick too. Feit R20 LED bulbs I cannot tell the difference between the 60 watt incandescent and the 40 watt equivalent "true color" LED's. (They have a color temp of 2700 but a Color rendering index of 93.) In a couple of years they will be much cheaper and even better. But I prefer to go from 60 watt incandescents, bypass more 15 watt CFLs to the higher quality of light in the 8 watt LED's now.

[4x4van]

pop-sicle wrote:
EDM360
FYI I bought the same panel you have and from the same seller they light up great on 12v coach battery but what happened on mine when I was on shore power the converter is charging coach batteries and is applying 14 volt to the panel, mine overheated and melted the adhesive pad on the back and it dropped down into plastic light cover so watch out for these.

FYI what I am going to try is to remove the adhesive backing then hold them in place with wire in my fixture.

I didn't bother with the double sided tape that comes on the panels, since many had reported that it would fail. I simply used a dab of silicone at each of 2 opposing corners. Worked like a charm and haven't had any come loose in nearly 2 years.

[Jopops]

I used these:

http://www.m4products.com/921-10-5630-ww-warm-white-elite-series-wedge-base-with-brighter-samsung-5630-leds/

They are pricey, but they do the job well.

[tpi]

These smaller class Cs can be very frugal with 12 volt power. LEDs have been a big help. The 20K BTU Suburban furnace blower takes 3 amps (far from continuous duty cycle usually). LED TV, tablet or laptop consumes far less than older laptops or TVs.

I still use propane for all cooking off grid. No heavy battery systems, wiring, or big inverters.

Between plummeting solar costs and great improvement in the demand side it is a good time to be off grid in a Class C.

[pop-sicle]

EDM360
FYI I bought the same panel you have and from the same seller they light up great on 12v coach battery but what happened on mine when I was on shore power the converter is charging coach batteries and is applying 14 volt to the panel, mine overheated and melted the adhesive pad on the back and it dropped down into plastic light cover so watch out for these.

FYI what I am going to try is to remove the adhesive backing then hold them in place with wire in my fixture.

[OH48Lt]

Remodeled my kitchen a couple of years ago, and switched the lighting over from 3 4-foot 80W florescent, to 14 cans using CREE LED 60w-equivilent dimmable floods. Great bulbs. They draw only 11 watts, do not heat up, and the light is consistent and even. I like the 2700k color, the 5000k are too blue for me. The sticky outside surface of those bulb is a little weird, but you only need to touch them once.

Going to convert the interior lights on my TT this spring. They used LED's on everything outside, but still used the incandescent fixtures on the inside. Won't be that way for long.

One thing some people should be aware of is the RF noise some LED's will emit in their driver circuitry. Most people won't be concerned with that, but we people who like to listen to shortwave radio or even AM band radio often get noise from the cheaper LED bulbs and fixtures. If that is a concern to you, get one of the fixtures/bulbs and try it out first. I did that with my CREE lights, they do not emit RF that I could detect, but a GE LED bulb I tried out was very noisy, RF-wise.

[EMD360]

Blue Hill wrote:
Gonna try the strip lights under my awning this season.

I like the little strips--you need a special magnetic dimmer if you want to be able to dim them.
I have a small tube of solar LED's. They are not very bright but came with a built in photocell so they go off during daylight. They were about $10 a 10 ft string. I broke the awning though so we haven't used them lately. :S

[EMD360]

Ivylog wrote:
OP, can you tell if the LED R20 are using the older round leds, the SMD square chips, or a single CREE chip? The little round ones that I bought 6+ years ago for $13 are still working (25,000+ hours of use) but are only putting out about half the light.

I couldn't tell on the R20's that I bought but I looked up another light on the Feit site and they have the SSC chip in them. (They don't seem to have the specs for the exact high CRI's that I bought on the site.)

So I looked up the SSC chip and apparently CREE has brought an action against Feit for copyright infringement and misleading the public on their Energy Star specifications. Cree brings suit against Feit

I did read that the problem with LED's is not burning out but reduced light quality over time. I expect these bulbs will only last about 6 or 7 years, not the 22 they advertise. But they are saying 3 hours a day. I figured it for 12 to be safe. Not that we leave the lights on all night! You were really ahead of the curve getting LED's that did not burn BLUE six years ago. I didn't know about color temps when I bought the first set of bulbs. I have not really used them except in special situations since they were so white they appear blue.

[EMD360]

pconroy328 wrote:

Still hunting for something affordable and as bright as an incandescent 921 bulb.

I looked up 921's and they are only about half as bright as 1156's in our RV. RV bulb spec sheet My original LED order came with wedge connections as well as too small bayonet that I had to hack into regular sized bayonet--a pain and not very pretty. You would be happy with 2700k 48 led panels that have the right connectors.

[EMD360]

D.E.Bishop wrote:
The little spots R20's are great for our recessed but not for the DW's spot on the couch. She wants a spot not a flood.

It is a lot harder to find a spot than a flood LED. I downloaded the list from Energy Star. Feit does make a PAR30 that is available at Amazon pretty reasonably. Feit High CRI SpotBut these are 15 watt! I like the 8 watt and they make one but I have not seen it for sale. Feit Energy Star Certified Spot

[Blue_Hill]

Gonna try the strip lights under my awning this season.

[EMD360]

FrankShore wrote:
I have 100% LED's on my Lance trailer (except for the fridge)

Yeah, the fridge and the night light which is some weird kind of bulb that looks like a fuse. We use the night light all the time and I don't know what it is drawing.

[Ivylog]

OP, can you tell if the LED R20 are using the older round leds, the SMD square chips, or a single CREE chip? The little round ones that I bought 6+ years ago for $13 are still working (25,000+ hours of use) but are only putting out about half the light.

[pconroy328]

I've been on a little Chinese LED experiment run myself. The 5050 T10's I bought have had a failure rate of about 50% within a week. The two LED panels have been running fine for over two months.

Might be switching them all over to panels.



Still hunting for something affordable and as bright as an incandescent 921 bulb.

[D_E_Bishop]

I am changing as many incandescents as possible to LEDs and I love the ones in the 2700k range.The little spots R20's are great for our recessed but not for the DW's spot on the couch. She wants a spot not a flood. I also changed all my track lighting at our condo and in two years, no burnouts.

I'll try the 48 LED panels you mentioned as we don't like the 5000K panels I got from China.