LED Lights to Save Power

I read an article a few months back about the LED revolution for 12V lighting.  It was astounding to learn about the advances in LEDs and how much more efficient they are compared to regular auto bulbs.

Would you believe that more than 75% of a regular incandescent bulb's energy is devoted to making heat rather than light?  Something around 10% of the engergy actually goes to producing visible light (stuff we can see)!!!

What this means is that for the same illumination, an LED bulb consumes about 1/10 of the energy.  This little tidbit got me thinking about possible applications for extending battery life, and such on my TM.

I found a good source for reasonable prices bulbs and commenced replacing.  So far, I have converted all the exterior lamps to LED.  The next step is to experiment with replacing some of the interior bulbs with LED.

My observations so far:  They are not a perfect replacement.  Many fixtures and reflectors are not designed for the LED configuration.  The brake/tail and b/u lamps will be modified this weekend to improve visibility.  

They are amazing, but not a universal solution yet...

Oilspot,

I have a question.  Why would you want to replace the exterior bulbs since you will always be hooked up to the tow vehicle battery when they are in use?

Sounds like a great idea for the interior.  Are there special fixtures that could be installed to fully utilize the LED lights ?

Oilspot,

Were you able to find indoor LED bulb replacements? If so, please send me the URL. Each of the factory original bulbs eats ~1.5 amps which is incredible. I would imagine that the LEDs are at least half this if not less.

Wade

Wade,

Actually I think the standard LED replacement for the 1156 bulb draws between 55 and 85 mA.  Not to shabby.

I hate to share my business secrets... since I toyed with the idea of trying to sell them... But it's not really that much of a secret.

Check out www.superbrightleds.com

There are other suppliers out there with all kinds of kinky configurations, but the price goes up a lot for the more esoteric designs.  (like right-angle bulbs.. ideal for our dome lights)  I plan to just use epoxy putty to form my own right angle bulbs.

[Bill]

Oilspot -

What is the light coverage pattern like? Incandescents radiate more-or-less equally in all directions. I seem to recall that LEDS are like spotlights - very bright within a narrow cone of coverage, but quite dark outside that cone. In other words, they don't necessarily make any more light than an incandescent does. Instead, they focus their light into a narrow beam, and within the beam they are very bright. Of course that is where the brightness is measured.

If a spotlight is what you need, then a LED may very well be the way to go - hence the use of arrays of LEDS as brake lights, where you want all the light to go straight back toward the car behind you. I was never sure that interior lighting would be a good application, though, since you want a more diffuse light there. I admit I haven't actually checked out a modern high-brightness LED.

Bill

I'll take a shot at answering both Wade & Bill's question.

First, LEDs are not an ideal direct replacement in all cases, because the light is much more directional.  But in most cases (as least on my trailer) it is just a matter of mounting the LEDs to face the desired direction.  The "elegant lights in the front of the trailer are not a good application because you desire 360 degree illumination and the shade clips to the bulb.  The dome lights are a different story, since we only need the light to project down (more or less).

Second, the energy consumed per lumen of light is much much lower (about 1/10th) for LEDs compared to incandescents.  Don't confuse directionality with lumens.  Just because the current selection of LED bulbs does not exactly mimic an incandescent, has no bearing on the inefficiency of and incandescent.  The efficiencies of the various lighting technologies is well documented.

Wade asked why mess with exterior bulbs?  My answer is reduce electrical load and voltage drop in the Tow Vehicle lighting system.  My current tow vehicle just uses the quick-T trailer connecter, so all my trailer lights are wired on the same circuit as the TV.  Not all vehicles do this (My Explorer had seperate feed to the trailer and then relays controlling brake/turn signal voltages).  I especially want the LED for the TM Back-up lights, since this is a "weak point" in my wiring and a heavy load already (high watt b/u bulbs in tow vechicle).

Hope this helps explain my interest.  Just remember I'm not trying to defend thier usage.  But I think they are fun and a potentially exciting way to conserve energy.

We've been using LED-type night lights to help us get around the unit in the evening without waking each other up.  The minimal draw of power is great, and we feel we're doing something for the environment.  We haven't yet considered the kind of major replacement of fixtures being described here.

Am I missing something here? I checked out the site listed above, and it appears to me that you just order the replacement bulb and put it in, both the exterior and interior.  It says, 1157 and 1156 replacements....., aren't those the ones???

Chris

[mjlaupp]

Food for thought:

The best selling point for LED lamps is that they are energy efficient. Translation, they do not put out the wasted heat energy of an incandescent bulb thereby using less amperage or current.

The other feature that I like about LED lamp light is that there is NO ultraviolet component in the LED light spectrum. Translation, they don't attract insects!

I do not have any LED lamps installed in the Trailmanor, but I have several hand lights using LEDs. I can go anywhere at night without a bug escort when I use one of these LED flashlights. As soon as I can find or make a set of lamps or lamp bulb replacements, I intend to replace all of the lamps in the Trailmanor with LEDs.

;D

So has anybody actually used LED's INSIDE their TM yet? This IS an interesting idea...

Anyone know off hand what bulb number we use in the overhead lights???

Best,

Gregg