I've just reduced the lighting load in our 16' Bambi CCD by about half! I tried replacing a couple of the 10W halogen bulbs used in almost all of the CCD's lights.
I was expecting some reduction in apparent brightness, since the actual lumen output of the 5W is somewat less than half that of the 10W. But thanks to the miracle of human visual non-linearity, neither wife nor I could detect _any_ reduced brightnes from any single bulb.
So, we replaced every bulb we could (all 21 of them in the 16'!), and are very happy with the result. We did notice a slight decrease in what I'll call the
"overall impression of brightness" in the coach when ambiently lit, but it's certainly not enough to either impede use nor does it detract from the beautiful look of the interior at night.
Given our energy use patterns, this 50% savings in juice consumed by lights should reduce our overall 12V consumption by 25%. Fantastic for boondocking.
I encourage all CCDers to try the experiment if you camp away from generators or AC hookups.
Also, we now have 24 unneeded G4 12V10W halogen bulbs. 5 are new in box, 19 are of unknown age, since they came with our 2004 Bambi, purchased in Nov 2005. They'd cost about $40 including shipping from bulbs.com, I'll mail 'em to the first Airstreamer who wants 'em for 15 bucks.
Hello Jon
You are out ahead of me on this - could you post the part number of the 5 W bulbs, and where you got them? I checked my local A/S dealer last fall to see if what you have done was possible, but they didn't have any 5 watt bulbs, nor could they provide a part number.
We also have a 16' CCD, and are doing some other things for 12 V power management. We've got a Honda generator, I just bought a rapid-charge 3 stage charger, and will add a 2nd battery to make our boondock camping easier. Reducing the load like you've done is a great idea.
I was thinking about experimenting with dfifferent combinations of 5 & 10 W bulbs - maybe setting up some switches with all 10s, and others with all 5s. With your comment about it not making a huge difference in the light levels, it would be easier to just switch them all like you have done.
Thanks in advance for any info you can provide -
Bob
I'm currently experimenting with a 1 watt Luxoen LED. This thing is unbelieveably bright and will last virtually forever (100,000 hrs.) and the emitter is about the size of a pencil eraser. I have two that I'm working with:
the first is 40 lumens and is cool white and the other is 25 lumens and is warm white.
I'll keep you posted on the visual satisfaction level and perceived brightness vs. the stock bulbs. The only drawback is the cost $25 each.....ouch .
__________________ Lew Farber -Certified Master RV Tech (currently on Forums sabbatical) WBCCI #1456/VAC (assoc) #1456 AIR # 10325 CHARTER MEMBER: FOUR CORNERS UNIT
Jon
Thanks for the quick reply, I just ordered enough to change out all of my CCD lamps. My dry camping just got better, I won't have to keep after everyone to turn out the lights (at least not so much).
I added a TM500A battery monitor last year, so I can monitor the battery condition. I recorded the amperage readings on each switch, I can hardly wait to change the lamps and compare readings. Those little bulbs in the CCD are a great designer feature, but they sure draw a lot of current if you're trying to conserve, especially with the single Group 24 battery on the 16' trailers.
This is a great website - every good idea I can come up with has already been figured out by someone else first! Saves me so much time....
After spending last weekend boodocking - and having battery issues
which required bringing out the flashlights for our last night:
we'll certainly be changing out all those bulbs in our CCD.
I'm currently experimenting with a 1 watt Luxoen LED. This thing is unbelieveably bright and will last virtually forever (100,000 hrs.) and the emitter is about the size of a pencil eraser. I have two that I'm working with:
the first is 40 lumens and is cool white and the other is 25 lumens and is warm white.
I'll keep you posted on the visual satisfaction level and perceived brightness vs. the stock bulbs. The only drawback is the cost $25 each.....ouch .
Lew, from my own experimentation, I have found the warm white LED's seem to match the Classic and Safari models, and the cool white seems better suited to the CCDs and the new Safari SE's.
[quote=RDM16CCD]We've got a Honda generator, I just bought a rapid-charge 3 stage charger, and will add a 2nd battery to make our boondock camping easier.
I'd like to hear your plans for the 2nd battery. I've been looking at somwhow placing one inside to avoid the power loss associated with outside temp.s up here in Alaska in the spring and fall. I wondered if I could modify the drawer under the seat near the door to accomodate a 2nd battery.
Hello frozen:
Our trailer is the 16' CCD, and the bigggest constraint we've found is the weight limit. Because of this, our 2nd battery is carried to the campsite in the back of the pickup, and gets set on the ground and hooked to the trailer battery when we get there. For the connection cable, I bought a battery jumper cable at the auto parts store, and crimped a ring terminal on each wire/end, and use the battery terminals with the wing nuts to attach them (most deep cycle batteries I've seen have both the post & wing nut terminals).
I would rather have permanently mounted the 2nd battery on the A frame, but I'm trying to respect the posted weight limit for the trailer, and the extra 50# or so of the 2nd battery is a big chunk of that budget.
We only take the 2nd battery when we're dry camping - the single battery is enough for use while on the road to aa campground with hook ups.
On the 16', the eletrical distribution center is under the RS dinette seat. A/S didn't seem to spend any extra time dressing the wiring as it connects to the various relays and bus bars, but if I wanted to clean this up and route the wiring more carefully, there is room under the seat where the 2nd battery could be mounted. It wouldn't be hard to add terminal connections to the positive and ground cables that come in from the outside mounted battery. If wanting to avoid the task of cleaning up the wiring, it would be easy to mount a 2nd battery on the floor under the dinette table, and create an opening to get to the connection points under the seat.
For flooded lead acid batteries, I think there must be some ventilation so that gases from charging don't create a fire/explosion hazard. But, it wouldn't be hard to switch to a battery with sealed construction - I see threads here where people describe doing this so they can mount batteries inside the trailer.
If I had my way, I would ask for the trailers to be designed so they have a lot more net carrying capacity, so permanently mounting another battery wouldn't be a weight issue. We removed everything in the way of our personal stuff from the trailer, and then weighed everything as it went back in. This convinced us that we needed that extra 50 #, and that's what drove our approach to this.
We had considered having a welding shop fabricate a frame for mounting the extra battery on the A frame, and it looked like there was room. The welder didn't think it would be hard to do, especially if I agreed to do the cleanup and prime/paint tasks afterwards to make it look good. This approach also required the battery cables to be replaced, since the original ones are installed to exactly fit the original Group 24 battery and would not reach even far enough to replace the Group 24 with a Group 27.
How long have you lived in Alaska? I've always had a dream to live there for an entire year, to experience the periods of total dark and total daylight, and to have enough time to do the hiking, fishing, and kayaking that Alaska offers.
Bob
Jon--We had the same problem with our 04 Bambie--Small single battery, lots of load ,was a constant problem especially in cold weather when we needed all the battery we had to get us through the night. We've since traded for another but before I was trying to figure a different switching arrangment so as not having so many turned on at once. It seems that with you low wattage bulbs if you could put a few lamps on seperate switches it would help even more.----Pieman
The bulbs on this site sure don't look like what's in the ceiling; are these just covers inside of which these smaller bulbs plug into a socket? Does the cover unscrew or did you lever it out with (a screwdriver?)? Naturally, my manual provides nothing helpful here. Thanks.
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