? about LED lights

Benlevi · 03-19-2017, 12:09 AM

I have a number of these LED lights in various fixtures (see photo) and find they're just not very bright for reading... it seems they're easy to replace, but with what? Do more elements make it brighter? It seems it would, but I don't know what to buy. Thanks.

retiredcamper47 · 03-19-2017, 04:31 PM

Go with bright white bulbs rather than warm white bulbs. The bright whites are much brighter than the warms. Also, the higher the lumen number is, the brighter the light. Two good sources for led bulbs are superbrightleds.com and m4products.com I buy mine from m4 products. You can find cheaper bulbs on ebay and amazon, but they are cheaply made bulbs. Hope this helps............

Bob

**Flybob** · 03-19-2017, 04:44 PM

LED modules such as this contain both LEDs and high freq components. The inexpensive ones from the far east many times use inferior components which fail or cause interference to FM radio and TV. The two suggestions above are tried and true good sources.

Benlevi · 03-19-2017, 07:16 PM

Thank you both for the good info. I need a replacement for the enclosed 921 bulb, but couldn't find it on m4products (with the right base) and superbrightleds.com seems to have a min. of 50. I found some on amazon; apparently the wattage is directly proportional to the lumens... one site said each watt is roughly 100 lumens. So I'm probably looking for 3 watt bulbs so they're brighter than the ones I have now. Amazing how hard they are to find.

davel1971 · 03-19-2017, 07:32 PM

I don't like bright white bulbs. I have all warm whites that are extremely bright. All from Amazon.

wahoonc · 03-19-2017, 07:43 PM

The more LED's the more light. I used some similar to these in my old Coleman.

Aaron

SidecarFlip · 03-19-2017, 07:48 PM

Might be all wet on this but, I think the higher the Kelvin number, the brighter the light is. Don't know who Kelvin is but thats what they use to determine brightness. I use 4000 Kelvin CREE LED's myself.

You have to be a technician today to figure out what light bulb you need...lol

Mdaniels4 · 03-19-2017, 08:26 PM

Basically the higher the K number, the whiter the light. 3k are a warmer yellow, 6k are more bright white but bluer. The 6s are a colder light. I'll see how mine are and if I can get used to it. Right now not so sure. I'm leaning to switching them out to give a more homey light vs hard industrial.

dbledan · 03-19-2017, 08:37 PM

I am by no means an expert but here is what I have learned.

Kelvens is a temperature measurement. The higher the kelvin the whiter the light.

Generally speaking temperature for light bulbs are:
Soft White (2700K – 3000K)
Bright White/Cool White (3500K – 4100K)
Daylight (5000K – 6500K).

The higher the Degrees Kelvin, the whiter the light. Note that not all manufacturers follow the soft white/cool white ratings exactly. Many use color to differentiate on the shelf. 2700K will be green boxes, 3000K blue boxes. Beyond that I am not sure.

Typically the higher temp bulbs can be cheaper because the require different types of LEDs where as the lower temperature (kelvin) bulbs require different ranges of leds. You really notice this when they are dimable because they don't dim at the same rates and will change temperature while dimming them.

Temperature is really a matter of choice. If you are like me and want your bulbs to match colors you have soft white inside and brights white outside. I also have bright white in the car headlights.

Lumens is what measures how bright they are. Always compare lumens because two 65w equivalent bulbs will have different light amounts because wattage is how much power the incandesent bulb consumed and that can vary by filament type. Some manufactures take advantage of this to bump their numbers.

Led lights no matter the temperature are not full spectrum light compated to incandecent and from my experience they draw fewer bugs...not no bugs..fewer bugs. Check out a light spectrum graph between bulbs and you will be suprised at how much we cannot see the difference.

Hope that helps! Good luck.

Ray and Ann · 03-20-2017, 04:52 PM

Like some others here, I prefer soft/warm white. 2700 Kelvin is much closer in color to the warmer color of incandescent lights. Even with 3000 Kelvin, which doesn't sound like a lot, I notice a difference. 3000 is my limit; I hesitate at 3000 and definitely won't buy anything above that. If a listing doesn't give me the color temperature, they've lost a potential sale; just claiming "warm white" isn't good enough.

Why? Because I've found there are too many vendors who try to stretch things.

The bright white color is much bluer, and I find the light unpleasant. I've seen some information recently, in connection with public lighting projects such as street or parking lot lights, about less positive reactions of people to the bluer light.

Gidyupgo · 03-20-2017, 05:41 PM

Kelvin was the brightest in his class.

5picker · 03-20-2017, 05:50 PM

Studies have found the higher blue light colors can cause fatigue.
Many cell phones now come with a blue light filter option for the screen to reduce night time reading fatigue.

SilverArrowPro · 03-20-2017, 05:58 PM

Daylight bulbs are what you need

cavie · 03-20-2017, 10:14 PM

Go to a lighting store. House fixtures and lamps. Not HD or Lowes. They will have a display for kitchen cab lighting. You can see all the available colors there on display.

led

PenJoe · 03-21-2017, 08:02 AM

As noted above, this style bulb has significant degrees of brightness. Get the brightest "daylight" you can get. Also, the disc type of bulb is very difficult to seat without bending them. I have found that using the front end of a small metal spatula to push the collar at the base of the disc works wonders. They seat much easier without damage to the disc. So far, every bulb purchased from Amazon has been flawless. I purchase them in quantities of 10.

**Flybob** · 03-21-2017, 08:07 AM

Unless you can see one a friend has and decide you like it, buy one and try it. Then buy the rest. Yes it may be a little more expensive, but you will not have a drawer full of LEDs you don't like.

grumpyoldman · 03-21-2017, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benlevi

Thank you both for the good info. I need a replacement for the enclosed 921 bulb, but couldn't find it on m4products (with the right base) and superbrightleds.com seems to have a min. of 50. I found some on amazon; apparently the wattage is directly proportional to the lumens... one site said each watt is roughly 100 lumens. So I'm probably looking for 3 watt bulbs so they're brighter than the ones I have now. Amazing how hard they are to find.

I bought (10)921 bulbs from superbrightleds. You don't have to buy 50. Buying 50 just gets you a better price. They seem to have the best price.
On the subject of color temperature I prefer the 5000K or above. With my poor eye sight these are the best for me. Use color temperature and not color name when buying your bulbs. Color name is subjective but color temperature is not.

pmsherman · 03-21-2017, 12:54 PM

One caveat when buying LED bulbs is to verify what the rated input voltage is. Bulbs designed for 12V will quickly burn out in an RV when the converter is holding the system voltage at 13.2 to 13.6V, During bulk charge, at 14.1V, the bulbs can have a short, merry life.

Bulbs with built-in voltage regulators can also generate lots of RF interference and have been known to disable television reception. Better quality bulbs tend to generate less RF interference.

When I converted my rv's fixtures to LEDs, I used 48 LED panels that were designed for a maximum of 12V. Each fixture had a small, high quality voltage regulator installed in it to keep the voltage to the LEDs below their rated voltage. One of the 20 installed panels failed after around 10 hours use, a victim, I suspect, of electronics infant mortality. The closest fixture to my TV is less than 3' away from it and I have no interference from RF generated by the regulator.

Benlevi · 03-21-2017, 03:55 PM

Thanks Aaron, for the link to the bulbs you used on your old RV:
GRV T10 921 194 24-5050 SMD LED Bulb lamp Super Bright Warm White AC/DC 12V -28V

I, too, prefer warm over "cool", and also believe the higher the Kelvin value, the more blue (cool) the light. I also think that wattage is related to lumens (≈100 lumens/watt), so the lights above are 3w, thus about 300 lumens. I will likely get some when I get back to the US and bring them back to NZ with me next Nov. and try them out.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts!
Ben

wahoonc · 03-21-2017, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PenJoe

As noted above, this style bulb has significant degrees of brightness. Get the brightest "daylight" you can get. Also, the disc type of bulb is very difficult to seat without bending them. I have found that using the front end of a small metal spatula to push the collar at the base of the disc works wonders. They seat much easier without damage to the disc. So far, every bulb purchased from Amazon has been flawless. I purchase them in quantities of 10.

I put a dab of dielectric grease on the base before shoving it in, so far I have been able to do them all by hand with no issues.

Aaron

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