To upgrade, the philosopher Beyonce teaches us, is to live.
I’m not sure if Beyonce has ever gone camping. But that’s the cool thing about owning an Airstream or any other RV — like a brick-and-mortar home, it’s a constantly evolving platform. With the simple flick of a plastic card, you can express your ideas and/or wreck your bank account.
Let There Be… LED from Sean Michael on LongLongHoneymoon.com.
Some upgrades are cosmetic. For example, our bathroom revamp (See, generally, Old School, New Faucet) was largely a matter of appearance (although the new faucet handles are a vast functional improvement over the originals).
But with LED lighting, we have an upgrade that’s almost purely functional. Sure, there are some cosmetic differences (especially if you opt for the blue shade of light). But there are several advantages to LED lighting. LED lights really are better than their traditional counterparts in substantive ways. The life span of these LED lights is 5000 hours and they use a mere 12% of the power of the halogen that we replaced.
Unfortunately, the bulbs cost a lot more than old fashioned incandescent bulbs. But if we are to believe the hype, they use much less power while also lasting longer. So in the long run, especially if you are keeping your camper for the long term, the finances are a wash. In the short term, you take a bath…
For the rest of this article, please visit our website: LongLongHoneymoon.com
Like what you see? BUY A DVD! If you find LongLongHoneymoon.com helpful and entertaining, please consider supporting our website by purchasing one of our DVD products (which by the way are LOADED with EXTRA CONTENT!): CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR DVDs!
Don H.
Counted the lights in my Airstream, I would have to take out a 2nd on the house, at the prices you showed. I would put that money into the tail lights first, then concentrate on the button lights in the ceiling and bedroom. Great for battery management. The LED tail lights can be seen at a good distance away and are very bright in the fog. Many trucks have LED’s on the trailers, a good safty measure.
David Crymes
I found the bulbs with the most lumens at LED Trailer lights. I had one go bad after just five hours use and I emailed Doug to tell him. The next day I got an email that he had sent me another. Great customer serivce.
Geoffrey Pruett
If you think LED lights are in your future check out http://www.superbrightleds.com as the site gives more usable info than most I have found. Have samples of the bulbs that you plan on replacing and calipers or a good ruler. Replaced all the running lights on our class A and it solved the very warm light switch problem on our P30 chassis. One caution, use the silicon based contact “grease” at install, since LED lights do not heat up much the contact scrub which keeps most sockets working does not happen. Have lights from 3 sources on our rig inside and out, these people came closest to delivering what I thought I was ordering. Somewhere on the site they have a light temperature demo.
Barry & Monique Zander
Sean, I recently wrote in rv.net about installing LED lights in our rig, and I mentioned that I would give an update on how we liked them. http://blog.rv.net/2010/10/lighting-and-the-unmentionable/
I’ll take this opportunity to say that Monique is disappointed in the lack of brightness of our ceiling yellow-LEDs, and she is still trying to get used to the “daylight” tones. She misses the ambience of the traditional halogen lights. She appreciates the low battery drain, but it hasn’t won her over.
As for me, I am satisfied. The LED reading lights are satisfactory by my preferences, and I like the quiet glow of the whiteness when I wake up predawn to work on the computer or make coffee.
I don’t know if there is a single answer that applies. I’m not sure if this is a technology that is in its infancy & will provide more choices as time goes by. I’m sure this subject will continue to be discussed on the blog and in campsites.
Barry “Never-bored RVer” Zander