Replacing interior lights with LED's |
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pod-head
Newbie Joined: 16 May 2010 Location: PHX Online Status: Offline Posts: 9 |
Topic: Replacing interior lights with LED's Posted: 18 Jul 2010 at 7:45pm |
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In an effort to maximize the battery life for our annual week-long boon docking trip, I recently ordered some LED's to replace the interior lights. We finally had a weekend to go camping, so this project was at the top of the list. Since I already had the multimeter out, I decided the check the current draw of the regular bulbs vs. the LED replacements. Wow-- what I found was really surprising.
***The fine print: These LED replacements are about 1/2 as bright the standard bulbs. They are adequate for eating or playing a game, but it might be difficult to read something with, uh, fine print. I just went back to the website (superbrightleds.com) and ordered some larger LED arrays that will generate more light. I'll report back when I have a chance to test these. I turned on one of the double overhead lights (RP177) and found it used 2.460A. I replaced the bulbs with the LED's and remeasured the current at 0.040A. Thats less than 2% of what the std bulb used. Thats huge! So let me put this into a battery life perspective. If you have a 75Ah (Amp*hour) RV battery, you could estimate that it would sustain a load of 1 Amp for 75 hours (under ideal conditions, battery capacity is effected by load, other factors effect capacity, your mileage may vary, blah, blah, legalese). Using the numbers from above: std bulb: 75A*h/2.460A => 30.5 hours of use LED array: 75A*h/0.040A => 1875 hours of use Thats a BIG difference. |
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'10 RP177 towed with '10 Tundra D and T, and sometimes Nala the cat |
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pod-head
Newbie Joined: 16 May 2010 Location: PHX Online Status: Offline Posts: 9 |
Posted: 18 Jul 2010 at 7:49pm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Part II (Continuation from the post above)
So, since the multimeter was already connected to the battery, I decided to measure the other possible 12V loads in the pod:
(1) The baseline load is the fridge running on propane,with CO2 and propane detectors on; no lights or other appliances running. |
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'10 RP177 towed with '10 Tundra D and T, and sometimes Nala the cat |
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techntrek
Admin Group - pHp Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Location: MD Online Status: Offline Posts: 9059 |
Posted: 18 Jul 2010 at 9:27pm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A great way to shed some load, thanks for the info.
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Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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TerryM
Admin Group - pHp Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Location: Saint Augustine Online Status: Offline Posts: 1950 |
Posted: 19 Jul 2010 at 7:01am | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Happy to see your results. I am planning on replacing my lights with LED's also. From the same place even! In the motorhome I had I replaced the lights with florescent lights and that made a big difference also. But LED's are much better at saving juice.
Terry |
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RP-175 W/Lift Kit 2011 Ford F-150 4X4
Saint Augustine, FL: The first permanent European settlement in the USA: 1565 |
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popgoesweasel
Groupie Joined: 22 Jan 2010 Location: Costa Rica Online Status: Offline Posts: 49 |
Posted: 19 Jul 2010 at 11:50am | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
how about some links to the bulbs that you have as replacements or the LED arrays that will generate enough light for reading.
I went to the web site but our pod is not where we live, I cannot figure out when are the correct replacement bulbs.
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R171 2010
Frontier 2009 Site 40 Eastern Rally 2010 |
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TerryM
Admin Group - pHp Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Location: Saint Augustine Online Status: Offline Posts: 1950 |
Posted: 20 Jul 2010 at 3:54am | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I'll check out mine today and post what type of bulb it has. Single or double contacts. It seems they would be single.
Terry |
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RP-175 W/Lift Kit 2011 Ford F-150 4X4
Saint Augustine, FL: The first permanent European settlement in the USA: 1565 |
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GrandPod
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 25 Nov 2009 Location: Southwest Flori Online Status: Offline Posts: 50 |
Posted: 20 Jul 2010 at 6:42am | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The bulbs that come with the R-Pod are a 921 type. I replaced mine with Leds from Superbrightleds.com used the WLED-WHP10-D. Where there 2 921 type bulbs; I used 1 Wled-whp10-D Led. I tried the 6 led one but was not bright enough.
The bulb for the outside light is a type 1141.
I tried several different leds from sellers on Ebay but none of the ones I tried were bright enough; so I went with the superbrightleds.com one.
Tom
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Tom and Linda
R-Pod 177 Southwest Florida |
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popgoesweasel
Groupie Joined: 22 Jan 2010 Location: Costa Rica Online Status: Offline Posts: 49 |
Posted: 20 Jul 2010 at 11:22am | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tom, Thanks for tip on using a brighter bulb with more LED's. Tiny URL for above http://tinyurl.com/y9vlems Ed
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R171 2010
Frontier 2009 Site 40 Eastern Rally 2010 |
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pod-head
Newbie Joined: 16 May 2010 Location: PHX Online Status: Offline Posts: 9 |
Posted: 20 Jul 2010 at 10:16pm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Correct, the interior lights are 921. These are also called miniature wedge base bulbs:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fmini-wedge.html One of the claims on the above page is: "The following 194/168 type bulbs will replace any miniature wedge base bulb with a 3 digit part number." This, to me, means that 921's can be replaced by 194 & 168. We'll find out, since I just ordered some WLED-xHP10-DAC to go over the kitchen sink. |
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'10 RP177 towed with '10 Tundra D and T, and sometimes Nala the cat |
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this_is_nascar
Senior Member Joined: 24 Jan 2010 Location: NJ Online Status: Offline Posts: 466 |
Posted: 22 Oct 2010 at 2:53pm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I'm looking to replace my bulbs too. What was the final outcome of this?
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"Ray & Connie"
- 2017 R-Pod RP-180 - 2007 Toyota Tacoma TRD-Off Road |
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