Whole trailer LED retrofit

[Caboose66]

All,
For anyone considering doing an LED lamp retrofit in your unit, I will tell you... It can be easy, relatively inexpensive and worthwhile.

We don't do much boondocking or running off our battery, but I did get tired of the heat generated from the typical 12V incandescent lamps in our RVs. I also liked the idea of using less power overall and the long life of LED lamps.

I looked through numerous threads in this and other forums and finally pulled the trigger on a bunch of LED lamps on EBay. I bought 20 each of the pillar type with 25 LED elements and the paddle type with 24 LED elements for about $1.82 each in bulk, shipped directly from the manufacturer/distributor in China.

I just replaced all of my standard lamps this morning (26 total). It was an easy job but remember, as many have said in threads like these, the lamps are polarity sensitive so if the lamp doesn't work when you first plug it in, flip it over and try again. Fortunately, all of the paddle types (which only have the LED elements on one side) worked the first time. If it hadn't worked, I could have just bent each wire to the opposite side of the base to reverse the way you insert the lamp. You may have to wiggle the lamp a bit to engage the wire elements with the terminal. Also, the pillar types went in fairly easily but the paddle types were a little tougher to push in. As someone else recommended grasp the base of the paddle type when inserting otherwise you will bend the plastic.

The LEDs may be just a hair dimmer than the regular ones, but not much. I got the warm white which are 3000-3500K color temperature. Those are the ones that most resemble the normal incandescent in their light quality and what I have been installing thoughout my house. The bluish-white ones (higher color temperature) may be a bit brighter, but I don't like the look as much.

Finally, when I used to enter the trailer and turn on 1 or 2 lights (3-4 bulbs), the inverter fan would come on. I had read someone else that did an LED retrofit say that they turned on ALL of their interior lights after replacing with LEDs and the inverter fan never came on. I had to see for myself and, to my surprise, I had the same experience. 26 or 27 lamps and the inverter fan never came on... Unbelievable!!

I will look up the link to the ones I purchased and post it in this thread. I am afraid to switch to EBay and lose everything I've typed...;).

In short I totally recommend this mod - particularly if you want to reduce your power consumption and/or production of extra heat in the trailer.

Dean

[tenbear]

FWIW, I had some panels that a string of 3 LEDs failed. Some failure analysis revealed that the LEDs were still good and the panel had failed, probably the contact to the LED???. At the time I had a Parallax 7345 converter that stayed at 13.8v so the boost voltage of 14.4v was not the cause of the failures. I have had a PD9260, with boost voltage, for the past couple of years and have had no further failures. None of my cob lights have had any failures, another indication that the panels, not the LEDs, had a problem.

[Huntindog]

The cheap non regulated panels will not interfere with the TV. There is a possible drawback in that there have been a few (very) few panel failures reported due to what is thought to be excessive voltage.

It is hard to really say just how big a risk there is.
Over voltage would only happen when the converter is charging the batteries, and it would probably need to be in boost mode for it to get high enough to be a problem. This would have to happen while the lights were on as well. With all of the converters out there that don't go into boost mode, and that many boondockers use their generators only during daylight hours when the lights are less likely to be on.. Then that may be why so many people don't have this issue.

When I did mine, I found some cheap Chinese stand alone voltage regulators on ebay and converted my entire LED light circuits to 12 volt regulated circuits. This works great. No TV problems and the entire circuit stays right around 12 volts all the time. I used a 3 amp one for the living room and had to get a larger one (5 amps IIRCC) for the kitchen as that circuit also powers the stove fan which has a pretty high draw.
I went ahead and replaced the 15 amp fuses with new sizes to match the converters. The only downsides are that it is not a plug and play install and I cannot go back to non LEDs very easy. So I keep a couple of panels on hand. Never needed them yet.

[the_happiestcam]

I bought the paddles from Ebay China last year - they are so bright that I only put one in each double fixture.

[JiminDenver]

Regulated has little to do with color and brightness. It allows the LED to be used in a wider voltage envelope without heating up when you are charging the battery off of the converter. A few years ago some had issues with the ebay LEDs while on shore power. They would get damaged somehow or more likely the heat would cause the imitation 3M tape to give. The answer to the tape was to use cob style (pillar) and at worse need to swap them out for incandescent while on shore power.

I've had some of my panels running at over 17v without failure. For another member I ran a test by running two in series on a 24v set up. They got hotter but didn't fail. The tape on my panels only contacts the reflectors on the edges but none has fallen. In fact removing one to repair a pigtail was so hard I thought I was going to damage the LED or the fixture. In 3 years I have had two failures out of 30 LEDs, both after a long stretch of washboards. 3 emitters went out on a 120 LED porch light and the pigtail on the panel. Not bad at all considering what I spent on them.

[Lynnmor]

Caboose66 wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:
It has been discussed before, but I'll remind the folks reading this thread about the RFI from regulated LED's. This past weekend was a good example of what can happen. I found 7 TV stations using my antenna. If I turned on just one LED lamp, I was down to two. If OTA TV is important to you, then the non-regulated LED's might be best for you.

Thank you for this reminder... I had read about this but forgot. I did not test this yet. I will have to check on the regulated vs. Non-regulated status of my LEDs. Considering the source, I am going to bet that they are non-regulated. Assume you take the good with the bad when using non-regulated in terms of standards for brightness, color temp.,etc....?

The price difference is no longer great and the color temps can be the same. The regulated may have a longer life and can be installed without regard to polarity.
Buy some samples first. You might want to keep a few incandescent lamps for use when watching TV.

[Caboose66]

Lynnmor wrote:
It has been discussed before, but I'll remind the folks reading this thread about the RFI from regulated LED's. This past weekend was a good example of what can happen. I found 7 TV stations using my antenna. If I turned on just one LED lamp, I was down to two. If OTA TV is important to you, then the non-regulated LED's might be best for you.

Thank you for this reminder... I had read about this but forgot. I did not test this yet. I will have to check on the regulated vs. Non-regulated status of my LEDs. Considering the source, I am going to bet that they are non-regulated. Assume you take the good with the bad when using non-regulated in terms of standards for brightness, color temp.,etc....?

[Caboose66]

pmfinnegan2 wrote:

Caboose66 wrote:


I looked through numerous threads in this and other forums and finally pulled the trigger on a bunch of LED lamps on EBay. I bought 20 each of the pillar type with 25 LED elements and the paddle type with 24 LED elements for about $1.82 each in bulk, shipped directly from the manufacturer/distributor in China.
.

I am curious, why did you buy the pillar type and the paddle type? Is there one that you like better? Gives off better light? Etc.?

Honestly, I just wasn't sure which one would work better. I was thinking that lights where I wanted more straight down light, I would use the paddle type and lights where I wanted more surround light, I would use the pillars. However, The majority of my lights are the double-ended "pill" style with the reflectors. I ended IP using the pillar style in most and have the paddles stored away as spares. I did use a handful of paddles in areas where I knew I wanted directional light and/ or there was no reflector (e.g. bed room Reding lights and range hood light.
I haven't had enough time with them to see which j like better.

[JiminDenver]

I changed our trailer over to LED a few years back and we no longer even think of worrying about turning the lights on. With three jet black dogs, it is a blessing being able to move around and not step on them.

Come to think of it, you just don't see that many complaints about the ebay LEDs anymore.

[Lynnmor]

It has been discussed before, but I'll remind the folks reading this thread about the RFI from regulated LED's. This past weekend was a good example of what can happen. I found 7 TV stations using my antenna. If I turned on just one LED lamp, I was down to two. If OTA TV is important to you, then the non-regulated LED's might be best for you.

[tenbear]

I converted to LEDs a couple of years ago. I went with 36 1210 panels and 18 5050 pillar or cob lights. The panel type directs most of the light in the same direction while the cobs have a more diffuse light.

My experience has indicated that not all Chinese venders are equal. I would advise buying a couple to try before buying a whole lot.

[69_Avion]

I changed out all my lights to LEDS when I rebuilt my camper a couple of years ago. It was one of the best changes that I made.

[pmfinnegan2]

Caboose66 wrote:


I looked through numerous threads in this and other forums and finally pulled the trigger on a bunch of LED lamps on EBay. I bought 20 each of the pillar type with 25 LED elements and the paddle type with 24 LED elements for about $1.82 each in bulk, shipped directly from the manufacturer/distributor in China.
.

I am curious, why did you buy the pillar type and the paddle type? Is there one that you like better? Gives off better light? Etc.?

[TucsonJim]

I prefer the cylinder type because we have reflectors at the top of the light fixture.

[Eyetattoo]

So do you all prefer the puck style LEDs or the cylinder style for the dome lights?

[Stefonius]

I replaced about half of the lights in our RV last summer. We got the square panel lights that came with multiple adapters. The reduced current drain is fantastic (as we do a lot of boondocking), but DW and I absolutely hate the "cool white" color temperature.

I'm planning to take them all out and replace them with warm white LEDs this spring. I've bookmarked Caboose66's link and I'll try buying those lights this time around.