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LED Bulbs -- L1156W and similar


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Just visited my local RV store and saw this display of RV replacement bulbs. I really noticed the L1156W, a LED replacement for the 1151/1152 series bulbs in the pancake lights.

 

From the display, they supposedly use only a fraction (like, 1/10th) of the amps needed by the small incandescent bulbs my unit currently uses. No heat, better (more white) light so they are better for reading, more "natural" light, etc. from the information I saw. It also appears that you need only turn on one side of the pancake lights unless you want a really bright room and then you turn on both sides.

 

My main thought, however, is the quality of the light produced. The current bulbs are a bit yellow and dim, something not to my liking.

 

Are any of you using these LED bulbs?

 

Any comments, good or bad, about these replacement lights? Other than the price as they are a bit expensive.... :lol:

Jeff & Laurie

South Texas

Hounds: Auggie (beer drinking English Cocker Spaniel)

Angus (five pounds of bad azz chihuahua)

Homebase: 2015 Heartland 365 Key West -- The "Uno Mas"

The Office: 2016 Crossroads Hill Country 26RB

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I am not sure if I'm using those exact bulbs, I did replace my incandescents with LEDs and they made a huge improvement in power usage. LEDs will definitely extend the life of your batteries, if you are boondocking. The power required for the standard incandesant rv sized bulb is significantly higher than the LED versions.

 

I however, did save the incandescents and put them back on occasion when we are hooked up to shore power, and its cold out. The incandescents will help heat an rv a bit!. :-)

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I however, did save the incandescents and put them back on occasion when we are hooked up to shore power, and its cold out. The incandescents will help heat an rv a bit!. :-)

 

That's a good thought and something I hadn't thought about. :)

Jeff & Laurie

South Texas

Hounds: Auggie (beer drinking English Cocker Spaniel)

Angus (five pounds of bad azz chihuahua)

Homebase: 2015 Heartland 365 Key West -- The "Uno Mas"

The Office: 2016 Crossroads Hill Country 26RB

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LED lights put out heat, just not as much as an incandescent light. On the other hand, they take a fraction of the electricity of a regular bulb. I have not started replacing the bulbs in the trailer with LEDs, but I have replaced a lot of the bulbs in our S&B with them (and seen a difference in the bill).

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Anyone have a good website for these warm white bulbs that they would recommend?

 

My RV shop is selling them for $14 EACH (!!) but I've also found a website that sells 10 of them for $30 --- which makes me question their quality.

Jeff & Laurie

South Texas

Hounds: Auggie (beer drinking English Cocker Spaniel)

Angus (five pounds of bad azz chihuahua)

Homebase: 2015 Heartland 365 Key West -- The "Uno Mas"

The Office: 2016 Crossroads Hill Country 26RB

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We have started to replace all of the incandescents with LED's in our class A. Bathroom was first, 3 bulbs at $20.00 each. Next the vanity in the bedroom 3 bulbs at $30.00 each. This is not going to be cheap, however the bennifits far outweigh the cost. LED's, being more efficient, will allow us to spend a bit less time worring about battery useage while boondocking. I like the light I get from LED's more than the yellowish tint of incandescents also.

2003 Newmar Dutch Star 3802

'98 Ford Ranger

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I get bulbs from superbrightleds.com. The price you mentioned is about right. You can get them cheaper by buying in bulk, but that is an awful lot of them. I use this vendor because they sell high quality and stand behind what they sell.

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I bought replacements for the incandescent bulbs in our RV at last year's Escapade an what a wonderful improvement. There are several versions an the white light is brightest with the warm white our preference. I don't have a web location as unless you know your source, you can get some that do not last well. The first LED's that I bought only lasted for about 3 months an the company would do nothing about them. This time I use a known vendor for Escapees. I discovered that I missed two of my lights so will be buying more to replace those as well.

 

On the heat issue, I do not consider the heating of an incandescent bulb to ever be positive as what it applies the heat to is the ceiling and light components and while it isn't enough heat to do much warming, it will in time make the plastic fixture get brittle and it will also get hot enough to turn materials around the light dark and brittle. I've not been able to document any fires caused by the RV lights, but I know of at least two car fires that were started by hot, 12V lights. I will never use an incandescent light in my RV again.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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Chalkie, do you recall which bulb you ordered? And they are 12vdc and not the mixed use, right?

Jeff & Laurie

South Texas

Hounds: Auggie (beer drinking English Cocker Spaniel)

Angus (five pounds of bad azz chihuahua)

Homebase: 2015 Heartland 365 Key West -- The "Uno Mas"

The Office: 2016 Crossroads Hill Country 26RB

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Tx Cowboy, I experimented with several LED replacement lamps and I found:

 

 

1) The flat panel pancake type provided more illumination downward where I wanted it versus the round ones with LED's all over top and bottom.

 

2) You have to consider how many LUMENS (light intensity) they provide, similar to how a 100 watt incandescent light bulb gives you more light then a 60 watt.

 

3) You have to consider the light color, I hate a yellow looking bulb, hate if too blue. The ones I like best are 6000 Degree Kelvin

 

After a lot of bulbs and sizes and brands and prices, the ones I'm purchasing now and like the best and are the best price and so far quality has been great are:

 

310 Lumens,,,,,,,,,,,Fit any of 6 bulb types,,,,,,,,,,,,Pancake flat panel style with 24 5050 SMD LED's,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Work great with sharp white bright 6000 degree color,,,,,,,,ONLY COST $6.24

 

See if you can top that???

 

Heres a link to purchase them on E Bay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/320712092192?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

If others have different preferences that's fine or if they think these are too cheap that's fine, to each their own HOWEVER these give the most light at the best bright color and are the best price Ive found in a while. That's my story n Ima stickin to it, now buy any brand or type or size yall please.

 

John T

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Oldjohnt, thanks very much for the detailed response. The more I researched this topic, the more I realized I didn't know.

 

I was targeting the 300 to 400 lumen range so your suggestion fits right into that range. "Warm light" is the color option I was looking for in most areas with a few lights, particularly over the dining table and sofa, going to the cool light range for better reading light.

 

Did you buy two of those lights w/ adapters for each pancake light or only one per?

Jeff & Laurie

South Texas

Hounds: Auggie (beer drinking English Cocker Spaniel)

Angus (five pounds of bad azz chihuahua)

Homebase: 2015 Heartland 365 Key West -- The "Uno Mas"

The Office: 2016 Crossroads Hill Country 26RB

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Just visited my local RV store and saw this display of RV replacement bulbs. I really noticed the L1156W, a LED replacement for the 1151/1152 series bulbs in the pancake lights.

 

x2 superbrightled.com

 

They have bulb look up chart to compare your bulb with the correct replacement led and are very helpful if you call, email or chat. The three bulbs you listed are all different and generally not interchangeable so you'll want to make sure you know what type of bases you have. A couple of the listed bulbs are single contact and one is two contact and to complicate things, some two contact bulbs are dual intensity and some are single intensity. I have several different bases and started out getting one LED each to make sure its was the right color and intensity before buying all the rest of them. On one of them, I changed the LED to one that white vs warm white . . . with DW's guidance.

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Jim & Wilma

2006 Travel Supreme 36RLQSO

2009 Volvo VNL730, D13, I-shift, ET, Herrin Hauler bed, "Ruby"

2017 Smart

Class of 2017

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Chalkie, do you recall which bulb you ordered? And they are 12vdc and not the mixed use, right?

 

As I said I have not started replacing the ones in the trailer. That link that John T posted looks pretty good. In fact, real good and you can't fault a seller with 99.8% positive feedback.

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Tx Cowboy, you ask: "Did you buy two of those lights w/ adapters for each pancake light or only one per?"

 

EACH bulb you buy (310 Lumens, 6000 Degree Warm White, 24 5050 SMD's, $6.24 each) COMES WITH 6 DIFFERENT BULB ADAPTERS that fit about any bulb size or type made.I bought some 3000 Degree color and some 6000 but prefer the 6000 as its whiter and brighter and NOT Yellow or Blue. All I bought work fine so far, did I mention the $6.24 price LOL. At camping stores and flea markets bulbs with less lumens cost much more and I cant believe they are better quality then mine and KNOW they are less lumens. To each their own, buy whichever your little heart desires, Im NOT here selling LED's lol

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/320712092192?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

John T

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1151 bulbs are P15s base, 1152 are BA15d base, and 1156 are BA15s base, so they do not look interchangeable.

 

Pay attention to lumens of what you are replacing and what you are buying.. Some of the LEDs are much less bright than the incandescents they replaced. You should also only buy ones that have a wide voltage range like 8 to 30 or 10 to 24, since these will put up the voltage ranges in an RV electrical system. Some of of the cheap LEDs will not handle the 14+ volts when your batteries are charging. We mostly buy off Amazon.

2004 40' Newmar Dutch Star DP towing an AWD 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid, Fulltimer July 2003 to October 2018, Parttimer now.
Travels through much of 2013 - http://www.sacnoth.com - Bill, Diane and Evita (the cat)
 

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When folks first started replacing with LEDs, some of the cheaper ones did not handle the wide range in voltage of RV 12 volt systems very well and did not last long. I am not sure if this is still the case. I have been told/read that the better quality LEDs are made to survive the voltage variations. I bought some from Amazon a couple of years ago and have had a couple partially fail (about half the LEDS out). When I went to remove one of them it was too hot to touch and actually started smoking as I removed it. All the failures were the round type LEDs and all were the higher lumen models. No problems so far with the lower lumen (less LEDS) model that I purchased.

 

On edit: Looks like Bill beat me to the voltage issue.

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Last year while looking for LED bulbs that produced light that we liked, a vendor at the Arizona Market Place, Yuma, AZ. asked me if anybody in our RV experienced migraine headaches? If so, she said she didn't recommend bright white bulbs as they seem to trigger migraines in folks that are susceptible to them. This January at Quartzite, I finally found the style of bulb I've been looking for that fit five of the fixtures in our RV after hunting for several years. www.goldengadgets.com

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Anyone have a good website for these warm white bulbs that they would recommend?

 

My RV shop is selling them for $14 EACH (!!) but I've also found a website that sells 10 of them for $30 --- which makes me question their quality.

Be careful that the bulb is rated for a wide range of voltage (like 8 to 20+ VDC) or they will burn out. The color temp. is also something to look at. I like the daylight, kind of blue/white but others prefer the warm white, especially when putting on makeup. ;-)

Happy Trails,

 

Florida Mike

EXPERTS AREN'T!! :D

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For makeup application you also want to look at the CRI Color Rendering Index of the light. A bulb that looks good to your eyes can still have a very bad CRI so if you use it to judge colors you will find they may shift drastically in sunlight or under a bulb with a high CRI.

 

For reading or general tasks CRI isn't as important and can let you get by with a lower cost bulb if it doesn't bother your eyes.

 

Color_rendering_index: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index

 

High_CRI_LED_Lighting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_CRI_LED_Lighting

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Sell a customer a Windows computer and you'll eat for a lifetime.

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