Replacing incardescant light bulbs

February 12, 2015, 05:03:31 pm

Before I even thought of buying any LEDs I did a lot of Reading/Studying on the subject.
As you have seen it could cost up-ward of $500 for just my 5 florescent fixtures. By using strips on a roll I was able to get the cost for the 5 florescent lights down to $30.

The incandescent lights are not that easy. You can not build some-thing from parts. You HAVE to buy separate bulb. The 5630 LED that you get on the strips is not very common for the incandescent bulb. Here the 3528 and 5050 LED are the most common. Stay away from the 3528 LED. You can get a barrel style bulb to replace the 1141 used in our incandescent ceiling light that has 68-3528 LED or one with 27-5050 LED. The one with 27 led will put out 25% more light.
For the lights that are used in our MH the barrel style of light is not the best, You are best to go with the dome style of bulb. With the incandescent bulb that is in the fixture now the light radiates out in a 360 degree pattern. The light that shines up into the reflector will reflect back down. The bulb is clear glass and light will pass through the bulb. With the barrel style the LED's are in a circle and on the end. 1/4 of the leds will shine up into the reflector and then reflect back down. But the light can not pass through the solid bulb. The dome bulb has all the LEDs on a flat board. All the light shines down. The reflector is not used. I have pic at my site showing the light from both styles of bulbs and you can see how the dome style lights the area much better. The barrel style is best suited where the shade surrounds the bulb and there is no reflector. Note the 48-5050 at the lav, even though all the bulbs shines down it does light the whole bath area. Even at the ceiling. Look at the light from the florescent lite. The old tubes shined the light in a 360 circle and reflected some of the light off the reflector. All the LED bulbs in the florescent light shine downward but still the whole room is well lite.

I did not buy all the bulb at one time; got a few of each kind to test/see what worked the best. Then I bought enough bulb to finish the job. After I seen how well LEDs worked inside the MH I got some for the MH back up lights and running light. These will not save any AMPS because the V10 engine is running. For the back up lights I now have 10 times more light and the running lights have 5 times more light; people can see the MH much better when I'm driving down the road. For Back-up lights use the dome 48-5050; for the running use the barrel 5-5050.

For the light over the bed I used the 24-5050 dome style bulb. Use these for all the ceiling light except the light at the lav. There go with the 48-5050. I wanted the max light to shave and a women to do make-up.

For the porch light and the back-up lights also go with the 48-5050.

For the night light go with the "ONE" 5050 LED on the end. The lumen/light will be the same as the old 194 bulb. It reduced the lumen from 25 to 20 but the eye will not see it. It reduced the AMPS from .33 to .07 AMPS. Incandescent lights have another disadvantage; they will loose 25% of there lumens after the first 8 hours of use.

If you go to my Flickr sight you will see the bulbs and how they compare to each other. I show the old 1141, barrel 27-5050 and the dome 24-5050 in comparison to each other over the bed. See how each lights up the curtains, walls and whole sleeping area. Like others I also feel the dome 24-5050 to be the best choice. Keep in mind the barrel lite has 3 more LEDs than the Dome and puts out 15% more light. The dome is best because it will put most of the light at the head of the bed for reading. All 3 of the light bulbs will light the bed area very good as you can see but I want most of the light at the head of the bed for reading.

I would have used the dome 24-5050 in the shower and toilet area but I had the barrel 27-5050 left over from testing and seen no reason to trash them and buy more dome bulbs. Some of the other barrel lights that were left over went in the enclosed ATV trailer.

Prices have come down some since buying mine last spring 2014. Every thing came from different sellers on E-Bay. Every thing worked and is still working one year later. I get a laugh out of places like "M4 Products". They brag about how much better they products are and now much cooler they run. The prices at M4 I could have expected to pay twice + as much. I checked the temp on my hottest 48-5050 bulb and is so cool I would say it is COLD. Maybe 100 degrees after 2 hours. A 1141 is so hot after 5 minutes you can't touch it.

COST: Night lights 10 for $3.86. Gave some to fellow campers.
Running lights 20 for $11.72. Also gave some away.
Dome 24-5050; 2 for 10.51 Dome 48-5050; 2 for 11.11 Total cost to replace incandescent bulbs in the MH was less than $65.00. In all I replaced over 39 bulbs in the MH for less than $100.00. The test bulbs are not in this cost but I used some in the enclosed trailer. Every thing above was with free S/H Just came across a 41 MM Festoon bulb for $1.50 and could not pass it up. Now the frig will also have an LED in it. Ha Ha. It is coming on a slow boat from CHINA I have $100.00 and some OBAMA CHANGE into ALL the LED lighting for my 24' LD MH.

WEB SITE OF MY LIGHTING: https://www.flickr.com/photos/27491195@N03/sets/72157650275047599/

George

Retired plumber