Group Buy of LEDs to replace incandescent bulbs

[Mike Magee]

Originally Posted by DirtDawg

Mike, some folks on the Casita forums that rarely camp without shore power are switching to LEDs simply to eliminate heat from incandescents causing distortion of their lamp covers.

That says it all right there! The LEDs are a big improvement in more ways than one.

[Thane]

Great info Rick G. Thanks.

[Matt in SV]

Hi Rick, can you set us up with the names of the eBay sellers for lamps and bases when you post your results?

Thanks,

Matt

[Jane P.]

Originally Posted by Paul Braun

I am wondering about the inside use of these bulbs, particularly where they are being used in a surface mount fixture. I would use the T-10 mini wedge bulb for example, in this case if I used this bulb only three of the LED's would be pointing down to illuminate the area directly under the bulb. Approximately 1/2 of the illumination will be going back into fixture. Now a reflector may help some but it seems like much of your light is going to be lost.

It seems to me that in another thread someone (I believe it was Frederick) suggested the use of reflector tape inside the incandescent light fixtures.

I'm not sure where to get such reflective tape, but it did make sense to me.

There are other LED bulbs that actually turn allow you to direct the light beam. But they are more expensive, and I believe they throw a [cold] blue cast.

My concern with LEDs is reports from other Fiberglass owners that they cause high pitch whining from the converter, and sometimes disrupt/distort reception from other electrical equipment such as radios and TVs.

I'm also not sure about quality control in the production of LED bulbs. In my mind I'm making an multi-year investment in this technology. In addition to providing lower energy consumption and heat management, these bulbs are touted to last many years longer than incandescent light bulbs. I would be fairly "irked" to see individual diodes burn out on even one of these bulbs. Unfortunately, it is hard to find many Forum member who have been using any one LED product long enough to provide info on longevity and quality issues.

But Jeff negotiated a great price and these LEDs. From reading other posters, they appear give out a warm light that rivals the incandescent bulbs. Worth a try ...

[Rick G]

Originally Posted by Matt in SV

Hi Rick, can you set us up with the names of the eBay sellers for lamps and bases when you post your results?

Thanks,

Matt

Certainly.

Over the weekend I ordered more of the LED lights, this time a 26 LED bulb rated at 2 watts, a bit higher than the 1.2 watt rated power (1.02 watt measured at 12 V) from my original purchase. They were also $3 each including shipping. That website is here:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270692137988&ssPageNam e=STRK:MEWNX:IT

As for the BA15 bases, I ordered them here:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110472594749&ssPageNam e=STRK:MEWNX:IT

As an aside, I have been working with LEDs since the 80s, off and on, including for communications and scientific research applications. Although manufacturing is now much more advanced (and less consistent) than then, I expect these LEDs to last a very long time. There is a bit of heat because of the high power and surface mount design, but the surface mount design also distributes the heat much better than individual diodes so there should be long life. I was not thinking of the heat distorting the fixtures so much as simply not wanting a lot of heat in the trailer on an already hot summer day.

Cheers.
Rick G

[Matt in SV]

Rick, what do you think of these:

Light Panel 36 SMD LED+T10+BA15S+Festoon Bulb Adapter - eBay (item 370481189578 end time Mar-05-11 01:31:19 PST)

For $1 plus $1.59 shipping! I just paid about $5 each plus shipping for about the same thing at DealExtreme a week ago (they'll take a few weeks to receive)
DealExtreme: $5.18 1.8W 36-LED Car Ceiling Dome White Light (DC 12V)

But the DX ones have lenses. No idea whether either one is cold or warm.

[Perry J]

I replaced every interior lamp and the porch lite in my 16' Scamp with eBAY item # 180620351640 early last summer. The're great and at the time they were the least expensive on Ebay. I honestly can't remember what they cost, but it wasn't very much.
The light has a slight blue cast and is more than adequate for reading.
John

[Rick G]

Originally Posted by Matt in SV

Rick, what do you think of these:

Light Panel 36 SMD LED+T10+BA15S+Festoon Bulb Adapter - eBay (item 370481189578 end time Mar-05-11 01:31:19 PST)

For $1 plus $1.59 shipping! I just paid about $5 each plus shipping for about the same thing at DealExtreme a week ago (they'll take a few weeks to receive)
DealExtreme: $5.18 1.8W 36-LED Car Ceiling Dome White Light (DC 12V)

But the DX ones have lenses. No idea whether either one is cold or warm.

It certainly looks OK, but will be a directional light rather than an all-around light bulb like an incandescent bulb. Also, I see the colour is listed as "white", not "warm white". That is probably a bluish-white LED, the common kind. Because the cold-blue-white LEDs are much easier to make and were first on the market, they are cheaper. For me that would be undesirable for room lighting, but many other people are fine with that colour. The various adapters for sockets is a plus, maybe worth the cost of the purchase by itself.

I should also amend my earlier post a bit about heat. These LED assemblies are so high power that they do give off a noticeable amount of heat. When I held my hand on one after it had run for a few minutes, I could close my hand around it for about 5 seconds before it became too hot to the touch, as opposed to a fraction of a second for an incandescent bulb. So they do give off some heat, but not nearly as much as the traditional lights.

Thanks,
Rick G

[Matt in SV]

Thanks Ric, I should have them in a week or two to compare. It's "Golden Week" in Taiwan, so there are some shipping delays. I'll be curious if they actually send eight packages. That's how the billing and shipping verifications came through! I expect the LED arrays without lenses will have a more diffuse beam, but both will be pretty directional, as you say, compared with a bulb.

I am hoping I can fit two in each fixture, and maybe add a three-way switch for high, low and off.

Regards,

Matt

[Rick G]

Ok, an update on the LED lights. I received the BA-15 bases in the mail, and put together 9 of the LED lights that I had previously bought. It was very straightforward to solder the positive lead (you have to try them out to figure out which one is the positive lead) to the centre pin and the negative lead to the shell. Then, for stability I put a couple of drops of 5 minute epoxy to glue them into position. They didn’t really seem to need gluing, but I wanted to make sure that vibration would not be an issue. I used to use 5 minute epoxy as a bonding agent when I worked on laser diode connectors for a scientific research company back in the 80’s. It is an electrical insulator and is stable over a wide temperature range, so I knew it would not create any electrical problems.
It worked very well, so a few days later I tried it out on a bench power supply running at 13 volts, similar to a charged battery. Pictures are posted.
The standard 1156 light bulb is noticeably brighter, but the 26-LED bulb is plenty bright also. You can see the current draw in the multimeter in the pictures. The 1156 bulb is drawing 1.4 Amps, and the LED bulb is drawing about 80 milliamps. The colours are comparable, which was important for me because I am not crazy about the harsher blue-white light that the earlier LEDs produced.
I also put in a couple of pictures of the LED bulb, which shows that very basic construction.
So, I am very happy with the LED lights. Now I am (still!) waiting for spring to install them.
Rick G

[Rick G]

Hi, here is another update on the LED lights. Over this past weekend I installed new light fixtures in place of the originals in our Trillium 4500 trailer, solely because we liked the look of the new fixtures and the switches on the old ones were getting flaky. These replaced the single light fixtures above the rear bed on both the driver and passenger sides, and the fixture above the front dinette suite. We are waiting for more parts to arrive before installing a new light fixture over the kitchen counter.

Anyway, the LED lights were a disappointment at first. They were a good colour, but were simply not bright enough to adequately light the trailer for our satisfaction, when compared to the original 1141 light bulbs. After thinking it over, I decided that we needed to have more light in the trailer.

Two possibilities suggested themselves. I could either install additional light sockets in each fixture, which was my original thought, or double the LED light bulbs in each socket. I figured that having two of the LEDs in each fixture would be close to the brightness of the original bulbs. Since I can run 16 of the LED bulbs for the same current consumption as 1 of the original bulbs, doubling up would still give a noticeable improvement in power consumption.

So, I made double light bulbs (two LED lights in each base) so that the doubled LED bulbs would fit into a single socket. The result looked like a capital letter “Y”, with the LEDs as the upper arms and the base as the vertical part. They were installed in the light fixtures so that the LEDs did not contact the fixture.

This worked much better, and the light was pretty much the same brightness as the old bulbs. However, we still wanted more light over the front dinette, so I replaced the single socket fixture with a double one, which then had two double LED bulbs in it. This worked very well. I may install a double socket fixture in one of the rear bed lights so we can make it brighter for reading, and also another single fixture at the front door as an entry light, we will see how it goes. The Trillium is 2 feet longer than the Boler, meaning that there is a lot more space to light.

For the eventual light over the kitchen counter, we are going to install an outdoor house fixture that looks a bit like a Boler trailer (link to picture here: http://www.rona.ca/shop/~lantern-marina-outdoor-wall-lantern-globe-50110_!outdoor-light_shop ) . We had two of those in our previous Boler and liked the feel a lot. I am currently undecided whether to light it with 4-6 flat 24-LED lights at 1 watt each, or to use a 110V - 9 watt fluorescent light powered by an inverter (so we can run it off the battery). I would prefer the LEDs if they give off enough light because then I will not have to use an inverter (which consumes a bit of power itself), but I will have to try them out to see how it goes. The LEDs are on order from China at $2.20 each, link to picture here: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280643959753&ssPageNam e=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Lots of fun. I am enjoying figuring this out even though the weather is still poor in northern Alberta.

Rick G