which LED bulbs for interior lighting??

[centerline]

Im sure this isnt the first time someone has asked this, and Im sure there are still a lot of others who wonder about it...

the LED bulb market changes quickly, and when someone makes a bulb that is nearly perfect and can produce it for a few cents, someone else will recognize the money grubbing potential and buy a license to market the bulbs, and Jack the price up til its nearly un-affordable...
BUT, there are still good bulbs being made that are excellent quality that ARE affordable...
and some of us would like to know which ones these are.

I have found the Green Value LED bulbs in the natural white color to be great for the interior lighting, as they are easy on the eyes for reading, and bright enough to "feel" good, whereas after awhile, a low light level can make one feel like they're setting in a dungeon... most of us dont like that atmosphere.

the color of the Green Value natural white bulbs is right, without the "blue" color, and not so soft as to have the yellow color either.
and at 270lumins, they are plenty bright....

the down side is the cost...
maybe not so expensive for a couple of bulbs, but my trailer has 30 bulbs that I want to change to led... at the cheapest price I can find on the green value 1156 style bulbs, that equals about $150...

I would like to hear from others who have bought OTHER brands of cheaper bulbs and are FULLY satisfied with the color and brightness of them...
AND it would be helpful to know which bulbs to stay away from, due to the eye straining color or low light output....

my cousin was down at Quartzsite 2 yrs ago and bought 10 bulbs for 2.50 a piece that are great, and one cant tell the difference between them and the $5-8 dollar bulbs.... these are undoubtedly available online somewhere, probably even cheaper, if we only knew which bulbs they were...

thanks for your input...

[Sam_Spade]

mosseater wrote:

The one's I bought came in at just under $9 per, and they were of obviously higher quality than other's I looked at.

And my point is: You don't have to spend nearly that much to get good quality. Mine came in around $3 each IIRC.

If you are doing 20 bulbs, that is a cost difference of about $120.
For some, that makes a big difference; for others, not so much.

[Dave-Sparky]

westend wrote:

harvey wrote:
If you have more than 13 volts when using lights you need the ones with voltage regulation.

Not my experience. My 12V system goes to 14.6V->14.9V, every day, depending on temperatures. I haven't lost a single LED panel or any individual diode in 6 years. Forum member "sparky" did a test of the early LED offerings and found that all survived at 15V. Not to say that ALL LED replacements can endure the higher voltages but nearly all can.

Dave-sparky here. Just saw this and thought I would update. I am still using the same LEDs that I installed at the time of the referenced test reports. I have only had one string of three LEDs fail on one of the 15 panels that were installed. I have been very pleased.

Dave

here is the link to the earlier post

[mosseater]

Sam Spade wrote:

mosseater wrote:
In my opinion, some of the best bulbs on the market. Did my whole trailer and am very pleased with the result.

M4 Products

Are you also pleased with the price ?

At $11 each, I wouldn't consider then for one second.

I quite assure you that you can get ones that are quite adequate for about 1/4 that price.

The one's I bought came in at just under $9 per, and they were of obviously higher quality than other's I looked at. The color is perfect, intensity only slightly higher than the incandescent 194, and almost zero heat. They don't interfere with the tv and don't blink when running the water pump. To answer your question, if I don't ever have to mess with bulbs again? Yes...very pleased, performance and price. YMMV.

[Sam_Spade]

4x4van wrote:
Like you, I refuse to pay $10-15+ for a bulb that I can get for $3-5, especially when I need 25+ units.:C

Which is exactly what I recommended.
I don't consider $3-5 per bulb to be "cheap".

In my recent experience, the cutoff point seems to be around $1.25 or 1.50 each where they don't specify either the color temperature OR the output in lumens in their listings.....and they often ship by boat. :R

[4x4van]

Sam Spade wrote:

4x4van wrote:
And yes, he would be more than satisfied with the color and light output.

Your opinion of his opinion.
Highly unreliable. :B

I tried about 4 different models of "cheap" LED bulbs and wasn't "satisfied" with any of them.

Perhaps, but based on the OP's description of what he's looking for, I think that he would indeed be satisfied with both the color and the light output. Not blue, not yellow, and lots of lumens...exactly what the OP is asking for.
Yes, I too have tried cheap LEDs that I didn't like, but I have also tried (and use) cheap LEDs that I DO like. Like you, I refuse to pay $10-15+ for a bulb that I can get for $3-5, especially when I need 25+ units.:C

[Sam_Spade]

mosseater wrote:
In my opinion, some of the best bulbs on the market. Did my whole trailer and am very pleased with the result.

M4 Products

Are you also pleased with the price ?

At $11 each, I wouldn't consider then for one second.

I quite assure you that you can get ones that are quite adequate for about 1/4 that price.

[Sam_Spade]

4x4van wrote:
And yes, he would be more than satisfied with the color and light output.

Your opinion of his opinion.
Highly unreliable. :B

I tried about 4 different models of "cheap" LED bulbs and wasn't "satisfied" with any of them.

[mosseater]

In my opinion, some of the best bulbs on the market. Did my whole trailer and am very pleased with the result.

M4 Products

[tenbear]

I converted all my RV internal lights to LED several years ago. They were all unregulated LEDs. None of the LEDs have failed although a few have had mechanical problems where the contacts to the LED chip failed. These were panels where I glued them to slightly curved surfaces in the light fixture. I use them whether I am plugged in or not. I have no idea how much they cost or who I bought them from on eBay, but they were not expensive.

[4x4van]

The ones in my post above are the 1141/1156 type replacements; which is a BA15S base (what the OP is looking for.
(These).

Most LEDs that use that BA15S base list both the 1141 and the 1156, as well as 1073 and 1093 bulbs. $75 would buy enough for the OP to replace all 30 of his bulbs. They have actually dropped in price a bit since I bought them; $25/10 vs $30/10. And yes, he would be more than satisfied with the color and light output.

[Sam_Spade]

westend wrote:

harvey wrote:
If you have more than 13 volts when using lights you need the ones with voltage regulation.

Not my experience.

Not my experience either.....at least not specifically the way he worded it.

It depends upon how close to the "flame out" threshold the ballast resistor is designed to run them.

Super cheap ones likely won't perform good with over-voltage. Slightly better ones designed to operate at a bit less than max. brightness should be fine. Should be.

Try a couple first before you order a whole "set".

[mobeewan]

centerline wrote:
Im sure this isnt the first time someone has asked this, and Im sure there are still a lot of others who wonder about it...

the LED bulb market changes quickly, and when someone makes a bulb that is nearly perfect and can produce it for a few cents, someone else will recognize the money grubbing potential and buy a license to market the bulbs, and Jack the price up til its nearly un-affordable...
BUT, there are still good bulbs being made that are excellent quality that ARE affordable...
and some of us would like to know which ones these are.

I have found the Green Value LED bulbs in the natural white color to be great for the interior lighting, as they are easy on the eyes for reading, and bright enough to "feel" good, whereas after awhile, a low light level can make one feel like they're setting in a dungeon... most of us dont like that atmosphere.

the color of the Green Value natural white bulbs is right, without the "blue" color, and not so soft as to have the yellow color either.
and at 270lumins, they are plenty bright....

the down side is the cost...
maybe not so expensive for a couple of bulbs, but my trailer has 30 bulbs that I want to change to led... at the cheapest price I can find on the green value 1156 style bulbs, that equals about $150...

I would like to hear from others who have bought OTHER brands of cheaper bulbs and are FULLY satisfied with the color and brightness of them...
AND it would be helpful to know which bulbs to stay away from, due to the eye straining color or low light output....

my cousin was down at Quartzsite 2 yrs ago and bought 10 bulbs for 2.50 a piece that are great, and one cant tell the difference between them and the $5-8 dollar bulbs.... these are undoubtedly available online somewhere, probably even cheaper, if we only knew which bulbs they were...

thanks for your input...

Generally 1156 & 1157 bulbs are used in older automotive and trailer tail lights and are made with external use in mind. Although 1156 bulbs work in trailer interior light fixtures most of those fixtures actually call for 1141 bulbs. Have you compared prices for similar 1141 LED's.

[4x4van]

These are what I put in my current rig: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B019C7I3O6/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I2Z19GY01PPYHT&colid=3CQCA0S3XDCTJ&psc=...
Love them! Good color, great light output, low current, inexpensive...

This is my 2nd RV LED conversion, and I really like these bulbs. My 1st one, I used the flat panel LEDs, but the ones I got were a bit too "white"...wife didn't like them. For this rig, I bought 2 of these bulbs to try; got the thumbs up from DW, and purchased 2 more 10-packs. Only $2.50 each in the 10-pack.

Going on 2 years, both boondocking and full hookup; no failures, no TV interference.

[Harvey51]

I'm just describing my experience with one eBay seller's leds. At the time they were close to the least expensive available. Folks here were advising RVers to buy quality American made LEDs instead of cheap Asian ones for this reason. Nice to see reasonably priced ones with higher voltage ratings on eBay now.

I do think it is a good idea to check for hot lights in case there are still some that can't handle the voltage without heating up, wasting power and being a possible fire hazard.