New LED Lighting for my RV

[ice_maiden]

So I am into the process of converting most all of the lighting in my RV to LED.   To do this required a bit of research first, so I thought I would take a few minutes to post what I learned for those who are interested.

After researching to find out how to think in lumens and Kelvins vs watts and cool, warm etc. And just how LED works vs other bulbs....
I went with COB (Chip on board) LED's.  COB LED's are a wider array light and the new one I just put in do seem to disperse a wider field of light. Also the COB LED's are supposed have lower thermal resistance. I have a couple of regular bulb sockets in my slide out,  I left the two NEW Led's on in there last night and they were completely cool to the touch this morning.

There were two charts that helped me tremendously in deciding which LED's to choose

The one here that showed me how to convert watts to lumens
http://www.cnet.com/au/how-to/five-things-to-consider-before-buying-led-bulbs/


And the one here that showed me how to choose the color temperature I wanted
http://www.seesmartled.com/kb/choosing_color_temperature/

I knew I wanted very high white ... the closer I can get to bright sunny day, the better I like it.
I ordered all of the bulbs from dealextreme.  If I wasn't happy with them at least I wouldn't have a lot invested.

So this is the household bulb (E27 base) that I ordered, it's very high white at 7000 kelvins
 http://www.dx.com/p/e27-7w-700lm-7000k-white-cob-led-light-bulb-yellow-white-191305#.Vt7lZdB1nIU

and these are the 12v (1156 base) lights I ordered
http://www.dx.com/p/mz-1156-15w-3-c...ght-steering-light-12-24v-388004#.Vt7mg9B1nIU

as you can see I wanted very high white lights and I am happy with what I got.  For those that want something a little warmer choose something with a lower kelvin rating.

For 14 bulbs I spent about $50.  but I missed counted and have to go back and order 8 more, I forgot the outside and the 12v track lights  

The only thing now that needs to be converted are my 12" florescent fixtures .... they have LED for that too but the cheapest I have found is a 30 buck each ..... and at 8 of those I think I will wait on that

 

[mayble]

Thanks for the info.
This is something I'm planning to do to mine very soon.

 

[akrvbob]

Great info!!
Bob

 

[WriterMs]

Will you be able to measure how much of a change in draw on your system you'll be getting vs your old lights? Is that why you wanted to change?

 

[ice_maiden]

Will you be able to measure how much of a change in draw on your system you'll be getting vs your old lights? Is that why you wanted to change?

The change was not really about power as I'm on shore power.  The reason for me to change was wanting more light, lower power consumption was just a bonus.  The bulbs I changes in the slide out went from 40 watts each to just 15 watts each, and the new lights were much brighter than the old ones