light upgrade question

[rickchap]

Hi people, I want to change all our current bulbs to LED. How much should I budget? Approximately. I understand that the price and type of LED bulb depends on the mounting, but maybe you have this experience.
How much money have you spent to install the LED light.

Did you notice less energy consumption?
thanks

[Msmoto]

Having converted a 2009 27FB International, 2007 25D International, Allegro Bus 43 QGP, I can attest to the issue.

IMO, LED4RV.com is where I go as Dan is a friend and I know his policy. He has expertise in Airstreams not found in most other suppliers.

I believe every LED he sells is actually bench tested prior to shipping. He has been in the business for several years, knows which Chinese suppliers to avoid, and if one has a problem he will stand behind what he sells.

If one wants simply cheap, there are lots of folks who sell garbage.

Cost, varies by what LEDs are being installed, but I would suggest sending Dan a message

Contact Us : LEDs 4, Recreational Vehicles

Ask him what he recommends and the price, and then decide from there. He can be very helpful whether you purchase from him or not.

Please understand I have spent over $1,000 on crap in the early days from unreliable suppliers. Thus LED4RV is where I go now and if I need to I can drive about ten miles and visit in person.

Oh, the Allegro Bus had about fifty puck lights, so....gets pricey sometimes.

[Easyrider06]

Rick,
I actually haven't upgraded my AS for LED yet but am planning on doing so(parts of the TT at least) over the Winter and since you are just down the street(Albany), thought I would try to help you out with prices from a local vender. I got ahold of an Airstream Life back issue (Fall 2008) that has a good article on LEDs, its a bit dated but was a start for me. I have been looking at replacing my lighting outlets vs. bulbs only. the average cost for an automotive type bulb (turn signal) is about $27 and up for a pack of 2, dual light interior ceiling lights(bulbs/fixture) $45, a 1141 LED Interior replacement bulb is $33, LED fluorescent replacement tubes are $35-$61 each depending on length (Alpin Haus 2015 RV parts catalog). I think the best deal for a low budget upgrade is LED rope lighting, its very flexible, either 120v or 12v, various lengths and is something I'll look at first to see if LED is worth the hassle(18' rope light is $30). Insofar a power usage, according to the AS Life article a 1141 incandescent lamp consumes 18.4 watts and has a life of 1000hrs vs. an LED replacement that consumes 1.2 watts and has a life of 50,000hrs although light output is lower with the LED (264 lumens vs. 180 lumens). As you can see the initial investment is greater (at twice the price) for LEDs but it appears the overall benefits make it a no brainer. The power savings is especially important if you are boon-docking/off-grid, in my case, that's not a concern as I'm looking for longer lasting lights/brighter tail, marker and signal lights. Hope I helped a bit to at least give you some $$ figures to work with. Good Luck!!!
James

[55AS]

If you do not want to spend a lot, you can simply replace your incandescent bulbs with comparable size LED's and keep your existing fixtures. I did this on my 64 Bambi and spent less than $100.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by BambiTex

If you do not want to spend a lot, you can simply replace your incandescent bulbs with comparable size LED's and keep your existing fixtures. I did this on my 64 Bambi and spent less than $100.

^
X2

We replaced all the "high use" interior lights with LED bulbs. (kept fixtures), left the fluorescent tubes as their pretty efficient. LED's have made a considerable improvement in batt life when off grid.
Replaced the exterior step & scare light bulbs with bright white LED's, left all the exterior incandescents as they are only on when under way.

Replaced the B/U light bulbs with a bright white LED pads to help with brightness when parking and breaking camp.

Bob

[sgschwend]

Ditto, on replace the bulbs. You can search the Internet by bulb base type and find them that way.

Also in the case of Amazon you can see a description of the application for a base type (give you a warm fuzzy that you have the correct bulb base). The prices have really come down, my last purchases was around $1/bulb.

You can get more technical and look for bulbs that have a color specification, warm, white.... The industry uses a standard value which you can easily find the definition if you care to use this type of specification.

I have found that the taillight bulbs give good color. They have something like 18 LEDs in each bulb which helps with brightness and dispersion.

[switz]

Our 2014 Classic came with the old style fluorescent bulbs.

We replaced the bulbs with LED Strips from Dan in all but one fixture. Three of the fixtures had a switch conversion and we installed double LEDs in each bulb location. With the switch we can select one or two LED strips lighted in each bulb location.

The three locations were over the kitchen sink, over the bathroom sink and bedroom ceiling.

Since the ceilings are curved, Airstream in their wisdom mounted these light fixtures orientated cross frame and screwed them tight to the ceiling. Thus the end caps are slightly tighter in the middle than at the ceiling and crack the plastic lenses. We replaced the lenses under warranty and I sanded a slight radius in each lense on both ends so they did not bind.

[ROBERT CROSS]

FWIW......on the exterior running lights.

They work much better when you match bulb color to lens color.


Bob

[rickchap]

thanks guys for your replies. I want to replace the LEDs and forget about them. Maybe I can mount new LEDs in my current fixture.

Originally Posted by Msmoto

Please understand I have spent over $1,000 on crap in the early days from unreliable suppliers.

Do you know about this store? https://www.mrosupply.com/search/?q=LED&page=3
One the one hand it can be cheaper online, but on the other hand I do not want to risk.
I remember my last awfull shopping on Amazon. I ordered the haedphones. Still waiting...

[Msmoto]

Originally Posted by rickchap

thanks guys for your replies. I want to replace the LEDs and forget about them. Maybe I can mount new LEDs in my current fixture.



Do you know about this store? https://www.mrosupply.com/search/?q=LED&page=3
One the one hand it can be cheaper online, but on the other hand I do not want to risk.
I remember my last awfull shopping on Amazon. I ordered the haedphones. Still waiting...

I do not know about the store in question. My shopping technique on the internet is to do a review, as in Googling "store name.com reviews" Then I look at the one star reviews, and if several folks are saying the same thing about a negative aspect of a supplier, I move on.

And, while Dan is a friend of mine, he is IMO one of the reliable places to obtain LED's. Of course, I can always go down and complain in person....LOL LED4RV.com

[BoldAdventure]

I spent about $30 to buy over 50 LED's for our Airstream. I am not a fan of overpaying for LED's.

[Alden Miller]

I have replaced all the interior incandescent lights except for the sconce light just inside the door (that's next). I picked up 1141 bulbs in ten packs off of amazon for about $1.50/bulb. I have replaced a couple of fluorescent lights that went bad with LED strips. For those I purchased under cabinet lighting and soldered wires to the ends and that cost about $10/fixture. If I have any more to do I will buy the longer strips of LED lights off of ebay or amazon and cut to length then install pigtails.

-Alden