light bulbs

[shasta24]

I would like to put in the led lights in my tt to conserve energy. Any pro or cons you could share?

[Ray552]

The LED should be standard. I witched mine out . Longer battery life important to me. Less heat also important in the summer time when trying to cool the trailer down .

Wife likes to read in bed. Changed the lights over the bed first as those lights were hotter than you know just above my head.

To save money in most fixtures I replaced only one bulb ( the bulb that turns on first) in each fixture.

Use the links provided and shop for the best price you will be happy you did so.

Switching bulbs cost me less and does more for me than adding another battery did.

[starlord]

The stock lights that came with the trailer literally burn the ends of bulbs because they get so hot. I've also had three of the fixtures freeze the switch on, I assume they got so hot the switch locked. The first one I got, I replaced the whole light assembly with one that already had L.E.D. bulbs. Bad choice, don't like the bright white ones at all, however, after that I started purchasing "warm" white bulbs. Those I can tolerate very well, closer to normal bulbs in the light color and output.

[time2roll]

dave54 wrote:
Don't see the point of throwing away perfectly good bulbs.

LED uses a tenth of the power. Had the effect of doubling my battery size. If you are plugged in the power savings does not matter much.

[BigDaddyHfx]

We replaced 6 fixtures with LEDs but only half of the bulbs. We find that with the right LED we only need 1 side of the fixture on at any one time. If we really need more light, on very rare occasions, we use both sides (a LED and an incandescent).

I made a rookie mistake with the first bulbs I ordered from China - I didn't check to make sure what base was on my bulbs. You need to know what your bulb's base size is and if it is single or double contact (would guess all should be single contact). I sold the wrong bulbs to a buddy at work who wanted to try LEDs and his trailer used the type I ordered by mistake.

[Alfred622]

Yes, there are a lot of posts on the forums about this, including many I've made. But, to summarize, I'm happy that I replaced all of my incandescent bulbs with LEDs. First, inventory what bulbs you need. I had about 15 CEC1141 bulbs in ceiling and counter lights. I went to Ebay and looked for bright, warm white, LEDs. I purchased some bulbs and some panels from a vendor in China. After trying them in the RV, we decided the warm white panels were right for us. I ordered a bunch of those, stuck them to the light fixture reflectors, and have been happy ever since! Now I ignore how much light we use when boondocking - they draw so little. I think I paid about $3 for each of my panels. Each panel has 48 LEDs (here is an example: ebay link ).

My advice: buy several different ones off eBay and find the one you like best.

[GrandpaKip]

We bought a pack of ten from Amazon for about $20. They have 24 LEDs and are 3500k. Made sure they have a wide range of voltage (some don't). We like them. Had some interference with the radio at first, but not now. Don't know what happened there.

[beemerphile1]

A quick search reveals 5,245 posts on the subject of LEDs, you may have missed them.
RV.net LED posts

[tenbear]

Pros and cons?

Well the pros are LEDs use about 15% of the power that incandescent bulbs use. As well as the obvious of extended battery life, it also means they run much cooler. You can also select the color that you like. Most incandescent bulbs are warm white while you can get LEDs in warm white, white or bluish white, or almost any color you like.

As I see it the cons are price. If you buy from American sellers you will pay about $10 - $15 per light. LEDs from China will cost from $2 - $7. They are all made in China anyway. There is also a great variability in quality from seller to seller. Before you buy a lot of them, buy 1 or 2 and see if you like them.

I have changed all of my coach lights to LED from China via eBay and am happy with them. They are great for off the grid camping.

[Tom_M1]

I changed out most of my bulbs for LEDs that I purchased on eBay. I am very pleased with the results.
Here's a link: LED install

[Sinnettc]

Made the change on our 22 foot sailboat a couple years ago and don't regret it a bit. Got a 10 pack of the fleabay 30 LED "bulbs" in the mail this week. Should be bright enough, only problem (if there is one) will be that they're more directional than a regular bulb so the light may not spread as much. I'm pretty sure we can live with it.

Chris

[Dtaylor]

Replaced mine from here: LED lights

[path1]

Any pro or cons you could share?

Before we switched we read on here that many that didn't get the right "lums" when they bought and had to go back and get brighter ones etc. When we upgraded we just stopped in a RV store when we had RV with us and got the "lums" we needed. Changed it out in parking lot. Then replaced bulb by bulb as time went on. Started replacing where we used light the most(kitchen for us). Hardest part was buying a bulb that costs so much. But very happy with end results.

[Shadow_Catcher]

I provided the fixtures used in constructing our trailer which use a G4 bulb. I just bought 10 of them from China for $10 and decided to see if I could destroy them so used two twelve volt in series and gently took them up to 23.5 V and two of the SMD's fell off once the solder melted. The reason to use LED's we do a great deal of boondocking.

[dave54]

I only replace with LEDs as the old ones burn out. Don't see the point of throwing away perfectly good bulbs.