Which LED bulbs to replace incandescent ceiling lights?

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DoGMAtix

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I recently installed a battery monitor when I wired a portable solar panel into our camper's electrical system, and had a shock when I found out how much our incandescent ceiling bulbs were drawing - about 2.5 amps for a single fixture with 2 bulbs! I ordered "XCSOURCE" LEDs off Amazon (a little over $1 each in a 10-pack) to replace the 1141-style incandescents. The LEDs use about 1/10th of the electricity of the incandescents, when all 6 light fixtures are on (8 bulbs total), the total draw is just 1 amp. So what's the problem? The light is a bit too weak and not as pleasingly warm as the incandescents. There's no way I'm going to put the incandescents back in now that I know how much battery power they burn, but I'd like to put something in that will better approximate the incandescent lighting. Is there a particular brand/model LED bulb that is better than others in this respect? I'd like to stick with something not too expensive, but if there's a brand that's worth the extra $ (especially if it lasts longer or is more reliable) I'd be happy to spend more.
 
Look for LEDs with a color temperature nearer 2700K. That is like an incandescent bulb. Even 4000K may be more pleasant than 5000K that you may have now. You may have to call the vendor to ask for the color temp.
The 5000K are very harsh especially coming after sitting around a campfire.

We use one or two Luci lights hanging from the ceiling. 50 lumens each. Plenty of light for the camper unless you're doing needle point or tying size 20 Royal Coachman. ;)

Paul
 
That helps. I called my local RV supply store and it sounds like they have an assortment of bulbs at around $10-$15 a pop (vs about $1.25 each on Amazon or eBay). That means a total of $80 - $120 for the set of 8, vs $12 for the cheap ones. Unfortunately the guy in the parts department is admittedly not an expert in this subject and told me to just come in and try out different bulbs, but I won't go in to do that unless I'm committed to buying from them. Unfortunately they are only open during daylight hours, so I won't get a good sense of how the lights look at night, which is what I really care about (we don't have blackout capability in our camper).
I wonder if there are quality or safety differences between the ones they carry and the cheap bulk bulbs you get online...? I read in one discussion on this topic (https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27952482/print/true.cfm) that cheaper bulbs may not have voltage regulation and can get hot when plugged into shore power. The poster suggested keeping the incandescent bulbs and swapping them out when on shore power, which seems like the best of both worlds, but a bit of a pain to have to mess with the lighting every time we switch power sources.
I also read in some one-star reviews on Amazon that many of the bulbs bought in bulk don't work, but all 8 of the ones I put in light up just fine... so far, anyway.
 
Well, I just spent another hour on this and I'm done (hopefully)! People had good things to say about superbrightLEDs.com, so I called them up. Customer service and tech support were great. I'd found this bulb that looked perfect for $15 (yikes!):
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/tail-brake-turn/1156-led-bulb-27-smd-led-tower-ba15s-retrofit/2622/#/attributes/10818.
When I asked a tech whether there was something comparable at a cheaper price he steered me to this:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/tail-brake-turn/1156-led-bulb-18-smd-led-tower-ba15s-retrofit-car/163/#tab/Specifications.
2900K should provide a pleasant warm light, and 300 lumens should be plenty bright.
They have a great return policy, with free return shipping for any reason (eg, don't like the color of the light), and even threw in a 10% discount through a promotion that I didn't see on their web site. Final price was $9.30 per bulb all inclusive, with 3-4 day shipping. Way more than I thought I'd need to spend, but worth it to lay the question to rest and have something en route I'm 99% sure I'll like.
One other issue that came up is that these type of LEDs can apparently be problematic when 110V is run through them. I plugged into shore power before making the purchase to make sure the Amazon LEDs I have in there now didn't get super hot or burn out. I left them on for 15 min and they seemed fine. I'm wondering if the lights are wired to get 12V rather than 110 when plugged in. Not curious enough to call Hallmark right now though (plenty of other things I've put off doing to deal with this), as long as they work.
Since I still have the Amazon LEDs, I can make a direct comparison when the new ones arrive, and keep those around as emergency spares. Though from what I hear, the LEDs won't likely burn out any time soon.
 
All of the lights and other "appliances" that are meant for 12v should only be wired to the 12v system. When you plug into 120v shore power, it would power the built in charging system, along with any other dedicated 120v outlets/appliances. The charging system would be essentially powering any of the 12v loads, with excess going to charge the battery.
 
Thanks for that explanation Bad Habit. I'm learning about the way the camper works piecemeal, probably just enough at a time to be dangerous.
 
Well, the new ones came and it seems that with LEDs you get what you pay for.
The $1 lights give off a weak bluish white light, feels a bit depressing and maybe not bright enough for tasks that demand good illumination.
The ones that cost $9.50 each are bright and have a nice natural-appearing light (I still wouldn't call it warm, but I don't find it depressing).
We went with 300 lumen bulbs, which are brighter than they need to be given the density of lights inside our camper.
The price difference is massive, percentage-wise, but given how long the "bulbs" are supposed to last (30,000 hr, with a 2 yr warranty), the total difference ($85 for the set) seemed like a bargain to me in the long run. A no-brainer, actually.
One other difference I noticed between the two products: The cheaper/weaker ones draw about half as much amperage as the more expensive/powerful ones. Again, a big percentage difference, but the overall battery drainage for either will be minimal - 1 amp with all lights on with the cheap bulbs, 2 amps with the expensive ones.
So I'd recommend the following:
Go with a lower Kelvin rating if you want more natural light, similar to an incandescent bulb. 2900K was perfect for us.
if you have lots of bulbs for a given living space you don't need too many lumens. 300 lumens works fine for us even with only half of the lights switched on.
If you're on a tight budget, like the feel of cool bluish light, and/or don't like the thought of bringing too many comforts of home to your camping experience, the cheaper lights may be for you.
 
Looks like a perfect example of the many cheap options available on Amazon and eBay, Poncho. I can't tell from the listing what color temperature the lamps are, or how many lumens. If the quality of the light suits you, though, then you've solved the energy-efficient lighting problem for a small fraction of the money I spent and you're probably using about half the amps. However, half of a very small amount of amperage and the majority of a relatively small amount of money (given the importance of good light) weren't enough reason in my mind to compromise on the end product. These LEDs are supposed to last for damn near ever, so I could easily justify a $100 one-time expense for the sake of more pleasant lighting in the camper. That's just me though.
Jroc, that Ikea hack looked like a lot of work if there's a simple bulb swap option. Having said that, I read the page with interest since I actually did have to do a similar job swapping out the under-cabinet light fixtures we have in addition to the ceiling fixtures in our camper. There was no simple bulb-swapping option, so I had to remove the entire fixtures and replace them, which meant taking out the false bottoms of the overhead cabinets, rewiring (because there wasn't enough slack in the wires to get at the connections), etc etc. Lots of head scratching and cursing and several trips to the RV supply and Napa auto parts before I got everything to work. I must admit, though, that I get a particularly satisfying sense of accomplishment every time I turn the under-counter lights on.
 
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