LED's Are Too White and Bright: Replacements?

[Ranger_Tim]

Our Four month old Wolf Creek is getting a lot of use. We love the thing but want to tone down the lighting inside. We prefer a softer, more yellow light and less lumens than what we have. Some of them have two cards and others have a single. All use a card with nine LED's on them.

I found this one on Amazon: LED light bulb/card

Is this what I might be looking for? We don't want to take an x-ray every time we turn on a light. Most of the time lights are just for mood, meals, or navigation around the cabin. I also want to turn one into a red astronomy friendly light for star parties so I don't blast the observers outside with whiteness. I can use a red tape or gel for that, but would like a light with less output.

We will still retain the white blasters we have now over the kitchen sink and under the dinette bunk for those times when we need to burn our retinas out.

Am I on the right track? I know nothing about these new devices and haven't even figured out how to open the diffusers!

[covered_wagon]

My kind of thinking Whizbang and there are some minor health risks involved with LED lighting too. There are a couple articles out about it. I don't have a link but you can google health risks with LED lighting and read what comes up.

Like they say there is no such thing as a free lunch, always some trade off or cost associated with a 'freebee'

[whizbang]

I like a warmer light as well. Unfortunately, my only buying experience with LED lights went poorly.

The local RV parts dealer had a LED display on the counter. One of the six LED lights was actually "warm" yellowish light. I bought that one to replace the light over the dinette that I use most often.

In my camper, the "warm" LED light was way too cool and blue for my taste. Rather than return the LED light, I installed it in the outside door light. If I happen to forget to turn it off, like I have a few times, it won't draw down the battery.

Good luck. I suggest going back to bulbs.

[AnEv942]

I believe as others have noted, your on the right track as far as color, warm white is what you want. However without knowing relative output 'Lumens' of what you have, difficult to know if what you order would be less in brightness. Then again were assuming you don't already have 'warm white' bulbs.
Generally 250-300 ish lumens before sunglasses or squinting required-but brightness is an individual thing.

Other than not listing Lumens, many sources (& one you listed) also do not state if regulated or voltage they can handle. Though Ive seen a couple that said 'do not use in RV'. Camper voltage can get pretty high, so other than base/physical size the 2 main things I'd look at would be light output and voltage range.

My only other thought is if your fixtures are dual bulb and not already, is to change switches to SPDT on/off/on, wire for 1 bulb or both.

[covered_wagon]

I hardly ever plug in unless my buds want full hooks. Run the gen for a bit is all.

[Kayteg1]

I build new house, putting all mostly used lights with LED, tankless water heater and extra insulation.
Now bigger house with 10'-14' ceilings is using 1/2 energy what old one with 8' ceilings did.
I personally like the cold white color and confirmed that this is the spectrum that makes reading easier.

[jimh406]

covered wagon wrote:
My house and rv are regular incandescent. I like it that way.

As long as you are plugged in and don't mind the heat, I suppose that's fine. 🙂

[joeshmoe]

RangerTim:

If the fixtures are the same as mine, Optronics, it's simply a matter of sliding the lens (diffuser, as you call it) away from the switch.It will only slide about a 1/2" til it falls away from the fixture. There is one screw holding each circuit board in. At that point, grab the light and pull it from the socket. Very easy.

Don't go cheap. If I was you, I'd just spend the money on direct replacements in the respective color warmth range you desire. All LED's are not created equal. The lesser expensive (cheaply made) ones have been known to overheat and die an early death or burst into flames in some cases. I'd stick with high quality, replacements.

[covered_wagon]

My house and rv are regular incandescent. I like it that way.

[Dick_B]

I had really bright lights for either side of our bathroom mirror at home and put black tape over every other led. Result? less light but one can see the individual led's instead of them all blending together.
Might work as a temporary measure.

My original idea was to put those aforementioned lights on a dimmer and have the best of all worlds; long lasting led's but dimmable for ambience. However, the dimmer that worked on the incandescent ceiling light did nothing to dim the led's. The best way for a novice to buy dimmable led's is to get a kit that the manufacturer put together. That way you know the led's and the dimmer are compatible. That's what my Son bought and they work just fine.

[54suds]

link to color chart

[Kayteg1]

Sounds like you need dimable lights.

[trail-explorer]

coolmom42 wrote:
We got ours (several years ago) at LEDtrailerlights.com.

Ditto.

I've been buying all mine from there. The owner owns an Arctic Fox truck camper.

Clicky link: http://www.ledtrailerlights.com

[coolmom42]

You want something with a color temperature of 3000 or lower, preferably 2700. It also needs a base that fits your current fixtures, unless you want to change the fixtures too. Take the cover off a fixture and see what type of base you have. I think a flat blade-type is more common in newer trailers, but there are also round bases that twist in.

You should be able to find a lumen (brightness) rating for your current bulbs somewhere. Look for something lower, LOL.

The above source looks good.

We got ours (several years ago) at LEDtrailerlights.com.

[jimh406]

I bought my warm leds from M4 Products. http://www.m4products.com/bulb-cross-reference-and-color-range/