LED bulbs

[philandterri]

While changing my 1141 bulbs to LED bulbs, found the they do not work on one side of the motorhome in the two fixtures over the couch and dinette. The bulbs work on the other side of the motorhome. They appear to be the same fixtures.MH is a 2006 Fleetwood bounder 32W ford chassis.

[westend]

horizon36 wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:

horizon36 wrote:
Some of the economy LED's are polarity sensitive, the better ones are not. In addition they often have a voltage range of 8-30vdc and are in the proper lumen range of 2,500 to 3,200 kelvin.

The "better ones" will likely interfere with TV reception when using the antenna. You just might want the cheap ones.

Actually, it's the other way around as the "better ones" usually cost a bit more due to the additional filters designed in to prevent interference with electronics. The less expensive ones many times are the older generation electronics & LED's and are more likely to cause electronic interference.

There are many anecdotal reports on this Forum of the LED's that have a regulator circuit (some of the more expensive ones) causing interference with electronics. The cheaper ones don't have this switching supply circuit so cause no interference. You have it backwards.

[horizon36]

Lynnmor wrote:

horizon36 wrote:
Some of the economy LED's are polarity sensitive, the better ones are not. In addition they often have a voltage range of 8-30vdc and are in the proper lumen range of 2,500 to 3,200 kelvin.

The "better ones" will likely interfere with TV reception when using the antenna. You just might want the cheap ones.

Actually, it's the other way around as the "better ones" usually cost a bit more due to the additional filters designed in to prevent interference with electronics. The less expensive ones many times are the older generation electronics & LED's and are more likely to cause electronic interference.

[BTPO1]

DrewE wrote:

travelnutz wrote:
tenbear,

Yes, that's possible but you have to find and change every "item" connection in the entire RV that's wired wrong and even then it doesn't truely correct the wrongly wired issue that exists. It's merely a quick bandaid type fix of the known and found wrongly wired items. What's still looming?

If just changing the wires at the fixtures, it would be wise to put a piece of red elec tape aroung the positive wire so down the road you or anyone who buys your RV later will know which is the positive wire for sure. Why not do it right??? Then you will have piece of mind also!

How is wiring an incandescent 12V socket either way around "wrong"? Seems to me that wiring a low-voltage polarity-insensitive device with arbitrary polarity is perfectly acceptable.

(A 120V socket is different: the unswitched outer shell should be connected to the neutral, and the switched inner button to the hot, to minimize the shock hazard when changing a bulb. That's not a concern with a 12V light.)

I agree with travelnutz, just do it the right way.

There is still a problem if the outer metal casing of the socket is the positive side if something metal were to come in contact with it and the frame ground. The fuse hopefully would blow before it started melting wiring.

Also there is a potential to be shocked by 12VDC if conditions are right, so why take the chance? JMO

[Lynnmor]

horizon36 wrote:
Some of the economy LED's are polarity sensitive, the better ones are not. In addition they often have a voltage range of 8-30vdc and are in the proper lumen range of 2,500 to 3,200 kelvin.

The "better ones" will likely interfere with TV reception when using the antenna. You just might want the cheap ones.

[horizon36]

Some of the economy LED's are polarity sensitive, the better ones are not. In addition they often have a voltage range of 8-30vdc and are in the proper lumen range of 2,500 to 3,200 kelvin.

[DrewE]

travelnutz wrote:
tenbear,

Yes, that's possible but you have to find and change every "item" connection in the entire RV that's wired wrong and even then it doesn't truely correct the wrongly wired issue that exists. It's merely a quick bandaid type fix of the known and found wrongly wired items. What's still looming?

If just changing the wires at the fixtures, it would be wise to put a piece of red elec tape aroung the positive wire so down the road you or anyone who buys your RV later will know which is the positive wire for sure. Why not do it right??? Then you will have piece of mind also!

How is wiring an incandescent 12V socket either way around "wrong"? Seems to me that wiring a low-voltage polarity-insensitive device with arbitrary polarity is perfectly acceptable.

(A 120V socket is different: the unswitched outer shell should be connected to the neutral, and the switched inner button to the hot, to minimize the shock hazard when changing a bulb. That's not a concern with a 12V light.)

[tenbear]

When I switched to LEDs, one fixture had the wires reversed. In that case the wires were connected wrong at the fixture. I reversed the wires at the wire nuts that were originally used.

Yes, it is better to do it right, but not at the cost of tearing the RV apart.

[travelnutz]

One never has to make excuses for doing something the right way. However, there's never enough excuses for knowingly doing something wrong and it's STILL wrong!

[travelnutz]

tenbear,

Yes, that's possible but you have to find and change every "item" connection in the entire RV that's wired wrong and even then it doesn't truely correct the wrongly wired issue that exists. It's merely a quick bandaid type fix of the known and found wrongly wired items. What's still looming?

If just changing the wires at the fixtures, it would be wise to put a piece of red elec tape aroung the positive wire so down the road you or anyone who buys your RV later will know which is the positive wire for sure. Why not do it right??? Then you will have piece of mind also!

[tenbear]

You don't really have to find the place that the polarity was switched. It may be easier to simply switch the wires at the individual lights. Could be as simple as removing the wire nuts and reattaching them. It might make the color code wrong, if you care, but it could be wrong now???

[travelnutz]

When your MH was wired, the person screwed up and reversed the wire connections going to the one side of your MH lights and it may be easy or hard to find or get at where the screw up occurred as it may be behind a wall or ceiling panel. If you use a VOM etc meter, you may be able to find where it occured and be able to correct it quite easily, unless it's hidden.

Not the first time by far an owner has found this issue in RV's and sure won't be the last. LED's are quite new on the scene in the RV industry and before them, light bulb current flow polarity wasn't that critical for only incandescent bulb use but was certainly against RVIA and commonsense rules and acceptance. Some of the workers in the RV industry are not well enough educated to know the difference as they are often entry level employees and this is their first experience with this type of work. A shame as RV's are not cheap throw aways. Inncorrect wiring is and can be a serious fatal fire hazzard anytime and it must be corrected ASAP.

[travelnutz]

Because an incandescent bulb has a resistance filament that heats up to the light level output whether it's wired positive ground or negative ground. As long as there's an active DC current of both positive and negative connection for flow thru the bulb filament, the bulb will illuminate. The center of the bulb socket can be either positive or negative as long as the tubular outer of the bulb socket is the opposite polarity the electrical circuit is completed.

[philandterri]

Thank you for the info.

[Iraqvet05]

Incandescent bulbs do not care about polarity, LEDs do.