LED replacement lights for wedge bulbs

[NWJeeper]

Thanks to Sonicsix for the info on the LED lights to replace the wedge base bulbs in our overhead lights. Shipping time from overseas was about 2 weeks but well worth the wait. They are plenty bright as compared to another light right next to it with the standard bulbs. I have just ordered 8 more of them to replace the rest of the wedge bulbs in our rig.

[dezolen]

Nice but pretty darn expensive to replace the multitude of bulbs in an RV. Will hold out till these replacements are down to a buck a piece

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by dezolen

Nice but pretty darn expensive to replace the multitude of bulbs in an RV. Will hold out till these replacements are down to a buck a piece

Yeah, they are expensive but they last 50,000 hours where as a normal bulb lasts between 1000 and 5000 hours. The real point is that for those of us that dry camp a lot the cost of running the generator to charge the batteries will quickly pay for them. I don't think you will see these down to a buck any time soon. Although I have heard where the government is considering calling for the phase out of incandescent bulbs for energy savings over a period of years. Don't know how long though.

[dezolen]

Funny I bought all new led Christmas light strings this year and wonder how these will last 50,000 hrs when they are already failing from day 2. Out of 10 strings 3 have already been faulty as when one quits the whole string fails. This was the reason I replaced the incandescent strings in the first place.
Good luck seeing 50,000 hrs.

[turbopuppy]

Well I don't think that is the same case as these lamp modules. At any rate, someone has to dive in first. It would've been me, but I refused to send cash to china. I was only waiting for the american market to produce these to retrofit my entire trailer. This forum is a a good place for trial and error and I will be closely following NWJ's updates. As for your string(s) - next time keep the receipt.

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by dezolen

Funny I bought all new led Christmas light strings this year and wonder how these will last 50,000 hrs when they are already failing from day 2. Out of 10 strings 3 have already been faulty as when one quits the whole string fails. This was the reason I replaced the incandescent strings in the first place.
Good luck seeing 50,000 hrs.

Turbo puppy is correct. Many of the Christmas lights are very cheaply built and they are not the same. I had been doing some research on those this year too and found a lot of very bad reviews mostly of the GE brand sold at many home improvement stores. Seems water can get inside as they aren't built all that well and it ruins them.

However I will probably die before I see 50000 hours of use from a bulb of any sort. The real point to LED lighting is not the cost of the bulb but our ability to spend extended periods of time dry camping which is what we like to do. For those that don't dry camp then there is no reason to replace their standard bulb. There is also no reason for them to spend upwards of $1700 on a solar system or close to $1000 for an inverter or almost $900 on a battery bank.

I spent close to $30 per unit for fluorescent light fixtures for our old motorhome times 5 units for $150. So far for the LEDs which burn a tenth of the power I have spent $100 to retrofit 5 lights, much cheaper but lots of guys think nothing of going to Camping World and getting the fluorescent fixtures.

Certainly I see no point to what some people will spend their money on. Can anyone explain to me $800 PER RIM for them stupid 20" wheels guys put on their SUVs? Not to mention the extreme price for the worthless tires to fit those rims? Still others spend $30/month for a data plan on their cell phones to be able to access the Internet no matter where they are. If you buy one latte a day for 20 days out of a month you will have spent as much as I did on LEDs in about 5 weeks. It's all relative.

For some people it's not about cost but accomplishing a goal. For us it's dry camping for as long as possible without having to run the generator every day, for others it's a completely stupid looking set of rims and tires. To each their own I guess.

[dezolen]

Sorry I did not mean to start an arguement on the subject but now realise I did not word my experiences very well. Just stating my disappointment with my experiences on the led lights and have found the ones that I have replaced in light fixtures in my home have not lived up to advertised life spans either.
As you put it with dry camping it makes sense when depending on battery life. Hopefully these will drop in price sooner than later

[dezolen]

Originally Posted by dezolen

Sorry I did not mean to start an arguement on the subject but now realise I did not word my experiences very well. Just stating my disappointment with my experiences on the led lights and have found the ones that I have replaced in light fixtures in my home have not lived up to advertised life spans either.
As you put it with dry camping it makes sense when depending on battery life. Hopefully these will drop in price sooner than later

PS hope you have better luck than I have experienced with LED's

[sonicsix]

So far so good on my LEDs. Not one has burned out but I do have 2 that the 3M sticky tape won't hold in place.

.

[cfsoistman]

Originally Posted by sonicsix

So far so good on my LEDs. Not one has burned out but I do have 2 that the 3M sticky tape won't hold in place.

.

I had two of mine do the same thing and bought Industrial Strength Velcro stips on ebay for a couple bucks. I cut them to a 1" x 1" Square and they're holding great and can be removed if necessary.

[kz08h5]

I want to pull the trigger on LEDs to replace all the incandescents in my TT. I like the price of the ebay offerings, relatively speaking. BUT, I notice all the China LEDs are bright white at about 6000 k vs. warm white at about 3500k. This seems to me the light could be rather harsh. What are your experiences with the quality of the light?

[samsc03]

as a lighting specialists( I install it for a living) i can tell you what i know about LED lighting. They are awesome for power savings, appearance at first, and wow factor. The down factor is that any given incandescent/halogen bulb in your unit will be brighter after x amount of hours due to the factor that the heat the little resistor/transistor board creates to the LED eventually knocks its output down. If your LED makes it 5 years and your incandescent makes it that long also I would be hard pressed to say that the LED would still be brighter or as bright as the normal incandescent/halogen bulb. So way the pros and cons. I will check them out though as I will more than likely want to test them for myself too.

Sam and Tonya

[MtnGuy]

Originally Posted by kz08h5

I want to pull the trigger on LEDs to replace all the incandescents in my TT. I like the price of the ebay offerings, relatively speaking. BUT, I notice all the China LEDs are bright white at about 6000 k vs. warm white at about 3500k. This seems to me the light could be rather harsh. What are your experiences with the quality of the light?

Before spending all of the money to completely do your camper, I would suggest just getting a couple to see how you like them. I ordered 4 (2 each of different LED counts). I put them in, had the wife inspect them with me, and we decided we would not like them throughout our trailer. 2 of them now live over the sink and stove, with the other 2 in a little used fixture.

[acadianbob]

We converted our entire TT to LEDs. We used the 36 SMD boards in our single fixtures. We totally replaced the double fixtures with these:

Double Dome White LED Surface Mount Interior Light Kit for RV's

Output is very good. Color is whiter; less yellow. Easily bright enough for reading, needle point, etc. They also have a 3-way switch; off, one side, both sides. Draw is about .15 amps when both sides are lit versus about 2 amps on the incandescents. We are very happy with all of the conversions. Now we'll see how they do over time. They're sure great for dry camping.

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by kz08h5

I want to pull the trigger on LEDs to replace all the incandescents in my TT. I like the price of the ebay offerings, relatively speaking. BUT, I notice all the China LEDs are bright white at about 6000 k vs. warm white at about 3500k. This seems to me the light could be rather harsh. What are your experiences with the quality of the light?

The color is different. Not bad, just different. We have converted our entire rig except for the halogen bulbs as the LEDs can't be dimmed and all our halogen are on dimmers.

We really like the LEDs as they are brighter and more importantly use much less power which is important as we dry camp a lot. We have even replaced the porch lights with LEDs. They do a great job. If you don't dry camp much or don't spend more than a couple of nights without power then replacing with LEDs makes no sense.

[fixer58]

Originally Posted by NWJeeper

Shipping time from overseas was about 2 weeks but well worth the wait. ............... replace the rest of the wedge bulbs in our rig.

The more time goes on the more there are scamers over seas trying to sell lights. You send the money and don't hear a thing.
Buyer beware!
Fix

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by NWJeeper

For some people it's not about cost but accomplishing a goal. For us it's dry camping for as long as possible without having to run the generator every day, for others it's a completely stupid looking set of rims and tires. To each their own I guess.

My 36 cell LED lights from farmseller work great.
I have switched out 2 complete light units (4 CBs) for 48 bucks.
I LOVE them. 300 MILLI-Amps instead of 3 Amps per unit.
VERY bright - Plenty to read by and not too harsh.

Plan on replacing all of them over time. (as cash allows)
Trying to convince DW that they are appropriate for Birthday and Anniversary presents. (So far no luck there for her)

I replaced the supplied sticky stuff with 3M Heavy Duty doublesided foam tape. The lights still get hot (No where near as hot as an incandescent) and the tape they use lets the CB drop after time.

[fixer58]

Originally Posted by herk7769

My 36 cell LED lights I LOVE them. 300 MILLI-Amps instead of 3 Amps per unit.
VERY bright - Plenty to read by and not too harsh.


I replaced the supplied sticky stuff with 3M Heavy Duty doublesided foam tape. The lights still get hot (No where near as hot as an incandescent) and the tape they use lets the CB drop after time.

I'm with you on the LED lights and I love your low power draw. I just found one of those overseas sellers and got beat. I sent the money and got nothing. I found a company that has great customer service and good dependable products. They are here in the states and give free shipping on orders over $30.00

www.LED4RV.com

These guys are great

Fix

[miatared]

Originally Posted by fixer58

I'm with you on the LED lights and I love your low power draw. I just found one of those overseas sellers and got beat. I sent the money and got nothing. ....Fix

I've been buying stuff from China for many years (since 2002) - but ALWAYS through eBay - and I have never been ripped off, always received what I expected. Always using PayPal to pay.

eBay has a system, a reputation and it works - once I had bought from a seller in South Africa - it got lost or something - eBay gave me my money back.

My 2 cents.

Denis

[Herk7769]

Fix,

I checked out that site and while they have 42 cell units and "warmer" color LEDs, they are 100% more expensive at $19.95 EACH.
That's 40 bucks per unit with "free" shipping.

Through Ebay, with PayPal, 36 cell units (plenty bright) were $8.99 each and farmseller has FREE shipping also.

High Power 36 SMD 1210 LED Car Interior Dome Bulb White - eBay (item 260452587188 end time Jun-19-10 10:32:40 PDT)

Lou