By the Never-Bored RVers
First, “the unmentionable,” which is our RV toilet. While some RV toilets apparently come equipped with a flushing mechanism that cleans the bowl, ours does not. My solution, as pictured, is a high-pressure spray bottle, which is available in the garden section of hardware and general merchandise retailers.
Instead of taking a chance on damaging the toilet using a brush, we use the sprayer. Routine cleaning is still needed from time to time, but the daily odious task of cleaning “the unmentionable” after use is almost satisfying.
And, secondly, replacing original interior RV lights with LEDs.
We were perfectly satisfied with our inside RV lights until a new-found friend, Alan Wolfe, an engineer by profession, showed off the replacement LEDs in his Born Free. Wow, what a difference!
I went online to check out the brand he has and others, but decided to wait until we visited the RVIA show in Pomona a couple of weeks ago to talk to vendors, if there were any. There was … and we bought a total of 11 LED replacement lights. At $240, it was costly by our standards, but we think we can justify the expense.
As for justifying that kind of financial outlay, “This better be good,” you’re saying. “The main selling point,” according company owner Tom Long, “is battery savings.” They use 10 times less battery power than incandescents.
And that was our main interest. We are planning to spend this winter boondocking for weeks at a time, not only for the RVing experience but also to keep expenses down. When we’re dry-camping, we don’t like our nightly battle of trying to get by with minimal lighting, so we’re hoping the conversion to LED will give us greater piece of mind.
According to Tom, there are other benefits, like longer “bulb” life. While an incandescent light costs about a third to a fifth of each LED replacement, the LED has an expected lifespan of 50,000 hours.
And another benefit: LEDs burn much cooler, reducing the need for the air conditioning.
After about three days of using our new lights, we aren’t totally satisfied with our decision, primarily because it reduces the brightness of our interior. It’s a daylight white, which is taking us time to get used to, as opposed to the yellowish look for incandescent. I expect that to pass in a few days or so.
We chose the yellow LED effect, which doesn’t look as sterile as the blue alternative. The blue gives off more light (Tom describes it as a midday sun effect), but it’s a harsher light, probably most suitable for a workspace (in my opinion).
Ya’ know those blinding blue headlights you see in your rearview mirror on the road? That’s the blue LED. It takes getting used to.
Swivel Reading Light
A few more personal observations. Mainly to minimize our outlay, we bought replacements for our “Grand Salon,” a.k.a., living room, the hallway, four of the swivel reading fixtures, and our over-the-sink fluorescent lights. We don’t use the other lights as often.
There is definitely less illumination from our ceiling lights; however, part of the problem may be the frosted glass fixture covers. We don’t know if there is a solution to that, so at this point we’ll just try to adapt.
In last May’s edition of “Motorhome” magazine there is an article by Dave Riggs that echoes our observations about illumination, including the thought that it’s something you need to learn to live with in order to reduce energy usage when dry camping.
Size of the LED unit must be taken into consideration, but if it fits in your lighting fixture, installation will probably not be a problem. The “bulbs” are strange shapes, but I had no problem installing them in the original fixtures – except the fluorescents, which I gave up on and took to an electrician, who spent five minutes getting it rigged up, including undoing the damage I almost did.
For the record, I purchased our lights from Jirah Company [http://www.jirahled.com]. It is among the companies listed in Joel Donaldson’s article in the September 2010 issue of “Highways” magazine about LED flashlights: http://www.goodsamclub.com/RVCentral/HighwaysDetails.aspx?articleid=1770193&issueID=905
A few days of living under the influence of the yellow LEDs is inconclusive, but I am sure that the battery-saving benefit will make our “testing” worth the effort. I’ll revisit this again once we are out in the desert relying on the LEDs to bring nighttime sunshine into our lives.
From the “Never-Bored RVers,” We’ll see you on down the road.