Converting to LED bulbs

[Gary the Wombat]

I did try a search for this topic but was unable to find what I was looking for, so...

Can I convert my incandescent interior 12 volt light bulbs to LED on my old 2007 Winnie Sightseer? Is it simply plug and play, or are there any considerations or restrictions?

If you know of an existing thread on this topic, please let me know so I am not just duplicating something already discussed.

thanks

[jpspaz]

There are other threads but I’ll tell you what I did. I bought a few LED bulbs to replace the push type incandescent bulbs in the ceiling fixtures. The first set I bought weren’t that bright at all. So I went online and bought different brighter ones. They are better but not as bright as the incandescents. It seems that the cheapest Led bulbs are garbage. I bought the second set on Super Bright LEDs website. What I ended up doing was changing out only the lights we would use when dry camping (bathroom, kitchen, and a couple near the dinette) and left the others with the original bulbs so that when we are plugged in to shore power we get the benefit of the brighter bulbs.

[cruizerEd]

The biggest problem you will have is finding something bright enough with a good color.
Most are to blue for me.
These were fantastic but they aren't available.
These are the latest but they were not quite as bright but really good color and it looks like they aren't available now either.

I bought 40W LED to replace 20W incandescent and 20W LED for 10W incandescent and they were just about as bright.

This is not always true I have bought several 40W LED that were probably not even as bright as 10W incandescent.

So buy one and try until you find something you like then buy a set.

As for the base the G4 is pretty popular so if you don't have G4 bases consider buying converters from you base to G4 instead of trying to find your base.

[NeilV]

As for the LED to replace florescent they still draw about the same amount of electricity if you go for the same effective light output and not just the textbook rating. The book may say that a 10 watt led gives the same amount of light as a 12 watt florescent however your eyes may tell you different. Harsher light yes but many times not the same usable light.

[JoeC]

LED lights are standard in my Itasca Spirit Silver 27QP. They are way brighter than the incandescent lights and use 25% of the electricity. Modern LED lights are way better than fluorescent lighting too and better for the environment.

That being said, there are two ways to convert. Replace the bulbs or replace the whole light fixture. LED replacements are expensive either way but my preference would be to replace the fixtures wherever possible. Even in my coach some of the lights were incandescent even though it was advertised as "all LED"; outdoor light and stove vent hood light, that were converted by changing out the light bulbs with LED equivalents.

If you don't do a lot of boondocking or dry camping, it may not be worth the expense to convert. Three years now and 28,000 miles and I haven't had to replace any lights. However, I'm looking at changing out my original batteries.

[HollywoodGT]

Originally Posted by JoeC

LED lights are standard in my Itasca Spirit Silver 27QP. They are way brighter than the incandescent lights and use 25% of the electricity. Modern LED lights are way better than fluorescent lighting too and better for the environment.

That being said, there are two ways to convert. Replace the bulbs or replace the whole light fixture. LED replacements are expensive either way but my preference would be to replace the fixtures wherever possible. Even in my coach some of the lights were incandescent even though it was advertised as "all LED"; outdoor light and stove vent hood light, that were converted by changing out the light bulbs with LED equivalents.

If you don't do a lot of boondocking or dry camping, it may not be worth the expense to convert. Three years now and 28,000 miles and I haven't had to replace any lights. However, I'm looking at changing out my original batteries.

I would have to agree with you Joe they draw less and produce far better lighting. LED draw almost nothing compared to other lighting. When I changed over my auto facility it was so so much better and big improvement with the electric bill

[Morich]

Shopping for LED bulbs is much like other things we shop. The more you know about what you want, the better you can make the decision!
So I found the first thing was to know how bulbs are rated as that is step one of getting the right one. But it is not as simple as knowing how many watts a bulb uses like in the old style as there are far more things which change the answer. With LED, you get far more choices to fit what you want.
Watts? Sure, as that is one way to compare your savings but I find it the least useful info as I want to know what amount (lumens) and what color (Kelvin) far more than the savings.
Lumens may be stated but often not so when reading ads, it pays to look closer at things like what size and number of LED will be on an array as well as how many are pointed the way you want the light to go.
If you want a light to shine in just one direction without a reflector, it makes sense to buy a bulb that has the LED all pointed one way! But if you are putting it into a fixture that has a reflector or where you want the light to spread out in 360 degrees, get a bulb that has them arranged that way like a "cob" light.
Led numbers on the bulb are often listed as well as the size of each LED, so knowing what the numbers mean is helpful as the led code is related to size. A 2835 (28X35) is smaller than a 5050 (50X50) so you expect to get much less light from 10-2835 than 10- 5050!
Color choice depends on what purpose and who likes which but generally 3200 K (Kelvin) is closer to old incandescent bulbs and 5000K is much more blue in color so some like the older color as they are used to it while some light the brighter/blue color for old eyes which don't see quite as well for reading, etc.
There are lots of great deals on bulbs but it is true that there is no one bulb for all uses!

[Charley67]

Maybe I just got lucky, but I bought LED bulbs from Amazon, they were simple install and a major improvement.

[AJMike]

I replaced all of the incandescent bulbs in my old Class B (except for one that I could not find a match for) with LEDs that I bought on Amazon. I never saw any difference in either the brightness or the color, but I do believe that they are much more energy efficient and they seemed to lower the drain on my batteries.

I believe that all of the lights in our 2018 Fuse were already LEDs straight from the factory.

[RLCASC]

Gary,
I replaced all the interior lamps with LEDs in the MH. Purchased through Amazon. Developed RF problems with TV. Read thread titled Baffled with electrical interference. Note post by NeilV near end of thread