Bulbs Replaced With LED's in Escape - Fantastic!

[dkdavies]

Summer finally arrived and we've pulled our Escape out of storage. Over the weekend, we replaced all of the incandescent light bulbs with LED towers from Autolumination. They work great. We 've used the superbright white ones and the light looks very much like flourescent light. These things draw almost no current so anyone concerned with conserving their battery should strongly consider switching to these LED's. They aren't that expensive, they drop right in to the existing fixture (at least in the Escape, don't know about other makes) and will significantly outlast the conventional bulbs.

Doug

[Thane]

Can you post the website link for the bulbs?

Thanks, it sounds like a good idea.

[Lisa H.]

I just looked it up. . . www.autolumination.com.

[Ellen Smith]

Hi Doug

Didn't know there was another Escape here in Terrace. Did you buy your bulbs here in town or order them? Do you have a part or bulb number. We would like to do the same as you and change over the bulbs.

[Chester Taje]

Hi Doug

Didn't know there was another Escape here in Terrace. Did you buy your bulbs here in town or order them? Do you have a part or bulb number. We would like to do the same as you and change over the bulbs.

Me too

[dkdavies]

Hi Ellen et.al,

I see the link to the autolumination site has been posted. Just search for LED Tower and the ones we have are the T10 versions. They are very bright and work fine for us. The are others with more LED's but I think that's overkill, especially in something as small as our Escape. Remember also that each tower only draws 0.085 amps of current. Compare that to the 1.075 amps drawn by one incandescent bulb and you can readily see the advantage. To put it in perspective, you could put LED towers in every fixture in the Escape, turn them all on at the same time and still not draw as much current as one incandescent bulb. Major savings on battery energy.

We also installed a 24-LED dome light over the dining table. This required some "creative engineering" as I installed it right next to the existing fixture and wired it into a toggle switch mounted in the rear of the fixture. It provides double the light of the LED tower and will be used for reading, etc.

Doug

[Chester Taje]

Hi Ellen et.al,

I see the link to the autolumination site has been posted. Just search for LED Tower and the ones we have are the T10 versions. They are very bright and work fine for us. The are others with more LED's but I think that's overkill, especially in something as small as our Escape. Remember also that each tower only draws 0.085 amps of current. Compare that to the 1.075 amps drawn by one incandescent bulb and you can readily see the advantage. To put it in perspective, you could put LED towers in every fixture in the Escape, turn them all on at the same time and still not draw as much current as one incandescent bulb. Major savings on battery energy.

We also installed a 24-LED dome light over the dining table. This required some "creative engineering" as I installed it right next to the existing fixture and wired it into a toggle switch mounted in the rear of the fixture. It provides double the light of the LED tower and will be used for reading, etc.

Doug

[Gina D.]

All of my fixtures have come from autolumination. I have 4 of the 24 LED Domes and have wired in the same up front, behind two existing fixtures.

The ones in the back have thier own switches mounted on the bottom side of the rear cabinet.

A word of caution on the towers. They are voltage sensitive. Anything over 14.5 will start popping LEDS in the array. The domes seem a bit less picky, but my old converter has smoked a couple of them when it shoots up to 16vs periodically.Keep n eye on the converter and what it's upper voltage throwing is.

If I am going to use the LEDs, I run off the battery. As you mention, they won't put a dent in it.

When converter is on, I use the incandescents.

[dkdavies]

Thanks for that tip, Gina. I will monitor the voltage on our converter and see what it's doing when hooked up to shore power. Sounds like I need to install both a volt and amp meter permanently in the Escape to keep an eye on what's going on. Don't know where I'd mount them offhand but it's something to consider.

Doug

A word of caution on the towers. They are voltage sensitive. Anything over 14.5 will start popping LEDS in the array. The domes seem a bit less picky, but my old converter has smoked a couple of them when it shoots up to 16vs periodically.Keep n eye on the converter and what it's upper voltage throwing is.

If I am going to use the LEDs, I run off the battery. As you mention, they won't put a dent in it.

When converter is on, I use the incandescents.

[peterh]

Thanks for that tip, Gina. I will monitor the voltage on our converter and see what it's doing when hooked up to shore power. Sounds like I need to install both a volt and amp meter permanently in the Escape to keep an eye on what's going on. Don't know where I'd mount them offhand but it's something to consider.

Doug

What I did was make a voltage regulator circuit that guarantees my LEDs don't get more volts than is safe for them.