Interior 110v lights

[Keystone]

Because I can.

Kind of a smart ass'ed response to legitimate suggestion made with good intentions.

Good luck.

Cheers,

Gus

I am sorry that your feeling was hurt. You asked a question. I answered.

[bdosborn]

Starting to lean towards LED's. But do not like the prices.

Really? $4 is too much?

LED

Bruce

[alexk]

I went with LED light strips from eBay in my TD and they are fantastic. Ordered a roll of like 30 ft or so for pretty cheap, got the multicolored ones with a controller on them. Ran them along the ceiling with extreme ease (they have a sticky side underneath ) and then plugged them into the controller. Ran wires to the controller, super simple as well, and it came with a remote to change the colors, dim, strobe, even do a color chasing mode where it transitions from color to color. They're a lot of fun and have THOUSANDS of hours on the little "bulbs." LED's all the way is what I'd recommend, personally love them.

[Keystone]

Bruce,

I am talking regular LED light bulbs. The trailer already has 110v in it. Regular incandescent bare "work shop" bulbs are wall mounted. BUT, the link you provided did give me an excellent idea for a trunk light in my Trike. Just how bright is that little set up?


alexk,

One of those enough light to read by in a 7X16 that is 6'6" inside? Or would I need two (or more)?

[bdosborn]

The only reason IMHO to use LEDs or fluorescent lights is for the energy savings when boondocking. Why bother with the added expense if your're on 120v shore power?

Bruce

[S. Heisley]

The only reason IMHO to use LEDs or fluorescent lights is for the energy savings when boondocking. Why bother with the added expense if your're on 120v shore power?

Bruce

There may be another reason to use them, which may be why they cost more. They last a long time, a lot longer than incandescents and CFLs, as I guess they have yet to figure out how to shorten their life span. I have one that I leave on all the time. It doesn't use much electricity and will last for more than two years, burning continuously. I calculated the life span of the last one, before I put it in, to be about 2.25 years, burning continuously, and it came pretty close to that before it burned out. At least, for now, longevity is a plus.

[Keystone]

Heat is another reason. Incandescent lights put out allot of heat. LEDs run much cooler than incandescent bulbs and significantly cooler than CFLs.

[pete42]

What I have heard is the florescent bulbs don't hold up in extreme temps like if you were to leave your trailer out in the barn for the winter, the next time you wanted to camp you would need new bulbs. I don't have experience from this yet but it sounds plausible.

the bulbs you refer to do take longer to come on full bright in cool or cold weather.
but the will work just fine in fact I have some 5 footer's yep 5 footer's in my front garage that I installed in 1974
when I built my house. the 4 foot ones in the back garage live in an unheated space they too work ok.
I have used flourscent bulbs in some of my old campers with out any problem, they don't have a filament like incondesnce ones.

(forgive My spelling it's bad and I don't have a spelle checker)

pete

[RandyG]

So is there a way to tell the difference between the bulbs? I wanted to use florescents in the galley.

[bdosborn]

There may be another reason to use them, which may be why they cost more. They last a long time, a lot longer than incandescents and CFLs, as I guess they have yet to figure out how to shorten their life span. I have one that I leave on all the time. It doesn't use much electricity and will last for more than two years, burning continuously. I calculated the life span of the last one, before I put it in, to be about 2.25 years, burning continuously, and it came pretty close to that before it burned out. At least, for now, longevity is a plus.

Sharon,
That makes a lot of sense in a house where the lights get used a lot, but not so much in a trailer. An incandescent bulb will last around 2,000 hours. That's about 500 nights at 4 hours a night. It would take me ten years to camp that many nights. A CFL will last about 8,000 hours but costs 4-5 times as much. I could use incandescent lights for 30 years and still save money over a CFL. The amount of electricity saved probably won't be noticed either since you're not running it very often at home and hopefully using the campground's power when camping.

Heat is another reason. Incandescent lights put out allot of heat. LEDs run much cooler than incandescent bulbs and significantly cooler than CFLs.

Keystone,
Again, that's a big concern in houses where heat needs to be removed by A/C so you're heating and cooling at the same time. Just open the vent or the window in a camper. Besides, the heat released by two people is equivalent to about a 75 watt bulb, another 40 watts or shouldn't upset the apple cart.

All this assumes your plugged into a 120V source, everything changes when you're using 12V battery power. CFLs and LEDs are much more efficient over incandescent and the only way to go for maximum battery life.

Bruce

[S. Heisley]

Yes, Bruce, of course you are right about the usage of an LED in a trailer; but, I believe that's why some (especially the ones used in 110 systems) still cost so much.

Okay, something else to consider. They've figured out how to shorten the life of a fluorescent light bulb; so, the ones you've bought years ago may last longer than the newer ones. They are now using the number of times that the light is turned on/off to shorten the lives of them.

[Keystone]

Bruce,

The heat produced by incandescent lights isn't only a concern for keeping a space cool. I have a vinyl coating on the walls of my CT (I'm not building a teardrop). Since I will always be hooked up to "shore power" I will be using 110v. I will have wall mounted lights. That is the reason that heat is a concern of mine. Hence the reason I am leaning towards LED lighting.

Anyway, I do enjoy the debate.

Thanks for the insight to Sharon.