Replacing RV Incandescent Light Fixture with LED Light Fixture

It's EASY to modify your RV to reduce your lighting power consumption by UP to 75-85% over your current lighting.

It's EASY to do.

Background articles on RV Lighting

Before going further, read my starting article on all of the different types of RV lighting that exist - it's quite amazing at all the lighting apps there are for an RV.

You don't have to change an entire fixture, you can change the RV bulbs from incandescent to led by simply swapping out the bulbs with an LED made to fit in the fixture.

Changing an entire RV Light Fixture

I wanted to swap out an entire RV light fixture.

Why?

1. Because I have never changed a fixture.
2. Because the LED lights I was examining required a custom fixture.
3. Because the current fixtures were too hot with standard 921 incandescent lights.

Tools you will need to replace your RV Light Fixture

• Screwdriver - better to have replaceable tips - but you can assume Philips-head.
• Wire cutter.
• Wire stripper
• Wire caps - the twist-on caps that fasten electrical wires together.

Steps to change your RV Light Fixture

Replacement RV Light Fixture w/ Bezel

On the left, you'll see the fixture I bought. This fixture has a custom fit to the LED light that is in it. Therefore a straight LED replacement won't make sense for this fixture. I wanted to try this different size LED light so I just ordered the fixture. Replacement RV lighting fixtures are about $10 or so. The link is an Amazon link to purchase a fixture so you can see what I'm saying.

Here I'm showing the same light fixture with the Bezel attached. Don't get this without the Bezel. I bought this from LED Trailer lights DOT com.


It is a little bit hard to see, but there are 25 white LED's in their light. This allows them to user CHEAPER individual LED's instead of more expensive LED's with higher light output. Since a good benchmark for LED's is that 10-15 will replace a standard 921, you can see that they doubled the amount of LED's to get about the same light. This means that the LED's they used are less than 1/2 as bright as the industry standard led light (as of this writing). That might be a good trade-off - If you have control of the plastic FIXTURE - like this project does have.

If you pop off the plastic diffuser (the plastic thing that helps spread the light everywhere) you'll see there are screws you can unscrew.

Go ahead and unscrew them!

Old RV light fixture held on only by wires

Here the screws are unfastened.

My "wire nuts" - the things holding the fixture to the RV wires - did not come unscrewed - they were crimped.

So I simply clipped the wires on this OLD fixture (not the RV wires - the ones going into the fixture) and then stripped the insulation back about 1/2 inch.
I went ahead and wired in the new RV light fixture.

New RV LED based light fixture almost installed

Now you can connect your new RV light fixture.


In case you are wondering ... you fasten black wires to black wires and white to white.


Now I simply screwed in the four screws which I "borrowed" from the old fixture. These don't need to be long or strong as the fixture is very light weight and the RV wall/ceiling materials are not very thick.

RV Lighting : LED lights on the left - Incandescent on the right

Here is the final project.

The LED lights put out a much cleaner light. Since this is above the headboard on the bedroom, the area is NOTICEABLY cooler using the LED's.

You can see the Incandescent light on the right.

My wife loves her new LED light fixture.

Conclusions on swapping your RV Light Fixtures

• Swapping light fixtures is easy.
• Anyone can do it with a screwdriver and wire stripper/wire cap
• Get the fixtures you want.
• the LED lights are awesome - we love them.
• The new fixture has a better button placement.
• What are you waiting for!!!

If you are nervous tearing into your RV's electrical, here is a highly ranked book on Amazon you can get :

921 Replacement Bulb for a 360 degree application

Previously, I wrote about a 180 degree application for an LED light to replace a 921 incandescent bulb. I'm also using that article to collect good LED replacements for 921 incandescents as well so I'll go update that article as well. As we think about RV lighting applications, here is an article that talks about the rich variety of lighting applications within an RV.

However, that application was 180 degrees (about 1/2 of the 921 reflects directly onto plastic). This application is for a 360 degree application. For fixtures in which the light bulb hangs down in the fixture and light needs to go everywhere, you need to have a special LED replacement that has LED's sending light into every direction.

360 degree 921 incandescent RV lighting application suitable for LED replacement

The light bulb that is in MOST LED lighting applications is pictured next. It is called a 921 Wedge incandescent light bulb. I've looked around around and it looks like these bulbs put out around 280 lumens - very source dependent on the number so just use it as a weak reference.

921 wedge bulb commonly used in rv lighting

The LED FORM FACTOR (shape of the light or its physical configuration) that makes lots of sense for 360 degree applications.

360 degree led light with 921 wedge base

There are many places to get these, but ONE place you can get lights like this is from ledtrailerlights.com. The particular light in their catalog is the T10 380 or at least that seems to be the part number.

We bought two of these and replaced both 921's in the application I'm showing above. Here are my notes.

• The replacement 'bulb' fit perfectly.
• The WARM WHITE is a GREAT replacement.
• Given the 380 lumens is significantly larger than the 280 nominal lumens it should be brighter than the 921.
• It was significantly brighter - the wife loves it.
• This is a keeper and we'll mark this as a good 921 replacement for campers.
• The base of the light is COLD TO THE TOUCH! That will be great for the summers.

I'll make a short video later!

WE love our fireplace and we NEVER buy wood or carry ashes!

Why?

Because it is an electric fireplace. In fact, we own an RV and we have a fireplace. An electric RV fireplace - who'd'thunk? I think that is the funniest, coolest, and oddest thing - all at the same time.

When we were shopping for a new RV, Sheri wanted a fireplace and I thought it was very silly. But now that we have it I think I like it better than her. It puts out GREAT heat, isn't too expensive to operate ( see our article on the cost of heating our RV in the Texas winter using the rv fireplace ), and it looks really great.

Look, we know the fire isn't real. It looks FAIRLY real, and it creates a fantastic ambiance in the RV even if it isn't a real fireplace. Before you knock it, I really recommend you give it a try.

I went ahead and took some video of the rv fireplace, which by the way is made by Dimplex, so that you can see the rv fireplace in action. The Amazon links I've provided are not the exact unit, but they are fairly representative and can give you a great start to avoiding wood and ashes. The actual unit we have is called the Dimplex BF8000. Here is the Dimplex BF8000 Manual, which I've put online on Google Docs for all of you.

Disclosure : I added the crackling fire and crickets to the video. I'm so sorry. I just could not help myself.

Enjoy the video...

RV Lighting - There is more to an RV than you think!

In an RV (recreational vehicle) the lighting system is a 12V DC lighting system. That is really awesome because it means that you can take advantage of the automotive market for lighting and innovation for RV's.

In my first article about an RV porch light I really have started to appreciate the idea of lighting in an RV.

LED lights make sense for RV's (and boats, motorcycles, and cars)

First, without being technical, LED's (which stands for light emitting diode) are a low voltage device. That means they don't fit well (yet) for houses which are 120V. They have them, but the bulbs have to have extra circuitry to lower the voltage to the LED's. But for car, auto, truck, motorcycle or RV's which are 12 Volt systems, LED's are a much better fit.

Also, LED's are a DC (direct current) type of device while homes are an AC type of device. While this is a gross oversimplification, you can think of something running on a battery as DC (again cars, RV's) and the home as something different. LED's work best with DC systems. So again, another great fit.

While the green revolution is important for homes, mobile devices like cars, trucks, motorcycles and RV's car about fuel conservation so green is even more important. In fact in an RV, when you are camping on a generator or WORSE, on a battery, you care very, very much how long you can operate. That means that lighting that takes less energy is much more important. A reasonable ESTIMATE of the efficiency of LED lighting is that it is roughly 2-4 times more efficient than incandescent (this is changing) lighting and the numbers are all over the map. I'll try to decode in this article and later articles. By efficiency I mean "how much light you get" in exchange for "how much power you consume".

LED's operate much cooler than regular lights (called incandescent lights) so you'll get less heat which is pretty handy in the summers - particularly in the south.

Lighting Types for RV's

I'd like to list all the different areas that lighting is used in an RV and I think it will surprise you how many different lighting applications exist with an RV. Specifically, I'm going to focus on towable RV's like fifth wheels or travel trailers, but much of what I'm listing can also apply to Class A Motorhomes or Class B and Class C as well.

Here is the list for RV lighting and what I believe are the best types of lights for each system :

• exterior rv lighting applications

• running lights - I think of these as the lights that are on during the day. This only applies to Class A, B, or C as this the same as daytime running lights and really is the same as headlights.
• clearance lights - These would be the lights at the top rear of the RV and along the tops of the RV along the sides. The idea behind these is to give an idea of the extents of your RV so that people understand it is a large vehicle and know its boundaries. Clearance lights are a good candidate for replacement with rv led lights. You will save energy, and have a more rugged light you can probably replace once and never again for the life of the vehicle.
• brake lights - These are the lights that turn on when the brakes are applied. Typically these are in the same housing as the tail lights, but are additionally applied so the drivers behind you know when you are reducing your speed, maybe even rapidly.
• tail lights - These are the standard lights on the rear of the vehicle that let people know you are there. This is another great candidate for replacement with an LED. One thing that makes this application great is that you want all the light to be aimed at the vehicle straight behind you and LED's are great for that.
• turn signal lights - These are the lights that you see that blink yellow (generally) when you are making a corner. A great candidate for replacement with an led turn signal - even more so since LED's can be used to make an "arrow" shape and actually animate to help notify the vehicles behind you.
• reverse or backup lights - My RV (a towable has these). They don't make a great deal of sense on an RV because you are so far away from the rear of the vehicle. But they would be a great indicator so that people know you are backing up.
• porch lights - This is the first light on my list that is not typically part of the "automative" lights package. You car does not have a porch. In the home, porch lights have typically been 120VAC lights that were incandescent or compact fluorescent. But the RV porch lights are 12V. Typically they are incandescent and utilize an automotive light bulb that uses a bayonet base. There are lots of these and you can get them at most auto parts stores (and Walmart, Target). A typical bayonet bulb that uses LED's is pretty easy to find. I've found that the porch lights use a yellow diffuser cover which is supposed to not attract bugs.
• flood lights - Basically a porch light with a white diffuser. Or at least that is how my RV is arranged.
• storage bay lights - These are lights that are in the RV storage bays so you can get your stuff at night.
• rope lights and other decorative area lights - you can't really have an RV without making the outside look festive. This is a common lighting application and it deserves an article all by itself!

• interior RV lighting applications

• recessed lighting - RV's have almost all of the lighting you would find in a home, except it is DC. Our RV has small recessed bulbs that are DC. These are GREAT candidates for replacement with LED lights because they are more accent lights and they are meant to illuminate an area. This is one of the best applications.
• standard wedge style rv lighting - This is the most common form of interior RV lighting. By my estimate we have around 40 of these in our RV. If you have a light fixture that has a BROAD lighting requirement, you might leave it incandescent. But we have these over our beds and in those applications, you could have a GREAT LED wedge style light replacement. Pay attention to the idea of having LED lights all the way around ( 360 degree lighting ) or just 1/2 way - which is the most common method.
• Here is an article on led lighting application for replacement of 921 wedge bulbs.
• reading lights (like above the bed) - a particularly good application for LED replacements. RV's tend to have these built in.
• In this article, I changed the RV Reading light fixture to accommodate an LED bulb.
• accent lights - These are the lights above the entertainment cabinet. One added advantage of using LED lighting here is that you can vary the colors and really add color and timing accents to your accent lights. Typically, these are halogen bulbs and I write about replacing halogen with led's with a G4 base (I explain G4 in the article)
• under cabinet lights - Really an extension of the reading light theme but RV's tend to have these installed already.
• night lights - We plug these into the AC outlets. These are not typically built into an RV. I don't think these are a good or bad candidate for LED's because night lights are already fairly low power consumption.
• flash light - You probably ought to have an LED flashlight sitting right by your door. I've noticed that for flashlights, the LED's beat the old D-Cell flashlights hands down.

What is a Wedge style light for an rv light?

What is a bayonet style light for an rv light?

 

What is a G4 style light for an RV light?

Hey Texas - I bet I paid less in energy last month than you!

It is Feb 1 and I have my electric bill for part of December and all of January. During that month Austin Texas has been pretty cool overall (not compared to the country, but compared to Austin's normal). We had several freezing days when normally we don't have more than one. Here is the austin weather data from Jan 2011.

During this month AND December we switched from RV LP Gas hot water (flick of a button in an RV). We also ONLY used the furnace about 5 nights when the temperature got very cold. All other heating came from the RV electric fireplace (I love the RV fireplaces - they seem cheesy, but now that we have one, I love it) which easily could keep the RV livable when it was approx 40 degrees outside and the inside temperature could be maintained at 70 degrees.

[ I linked the electric fireplace's above to ones listed on Amazon. I think they are very similar. ]

So HOW MUCH DID IT COST US IN ELECTRIC in 1/2 of December and all of January 2011 in Austin Texas in our wonderful Open Range 399 BHS fifth wheel RV?

$62

That is a month and a half everyone. We NEVER suffered or sacrificed. We kept our water hot (we did NOT use our previous techniques for saving on energy costs for an RV hot water heater) on all the time, we kept the inside comfortable, we used the TV, the stereo, the computers. Sometimes we even left the door open to world (I have children). And it only cost us $62.What did YOU pay? Post a comment.

So you see, this is why living small (like the California tiny house revolution) and in RV's are very energy efficient and good for the planet. Here is another article on why RV's are good for the planet and the green revolution.

RV Basics : An Electrical Primer : Power or Watts

In this previous article I took some time and explained how volts and amps work and tried to give you a guttural sense of the two 'things' so you might get a more intuitive feel for electricity. I ended by explaining that amps and volts work together to provide power and that power is what gets things done.

The measurement of power is called a Watt. Again this is named after a fellow named, well, Watt.

Power is the most important thing to think about in almost every sense of electricity for a number of reasons. You can power up and get a 'power budget'. You can just about figure out what things will make you 'hot' because they waste power in the form of heat instead of utilizing power in the form of 'getting something done'.

You can roughly figure that the RV power budget for a 30 Amp circuit will be 3600 Watts. The reason the circuits are stated in 30 Amps is because the circuit breaker protection is set for looking for how many Amps go through the system. Amps through systems cause damage, but you can never lose sight of the idea that the total power needed by the system is what causes the demand for the amps and because the voltage is 'known' typically people don't worry about stating the voltage. People will go back and forth a little bit, but for subtle reasons you'll use one term or the other.

For a 50 Amp RV, the power budget is 6000 Watts, although I think the 50 Amp units may actually be 50 Amps on TWO sources of power which means you might get to 12,000 Watts. Our trusty Puma is a 30 Amp unit so I've never looked.

Lots of RV gadgets consume POWER. Your microwave, refrigerator, TV and so on and so forth. When the engineers designed them they made assumptions about available power (delivered as Amps/Volts) and the system usually tries to maintain a constant power internally. As the circuitry tries to maintain a constant power, if either the available Amps or Volts changes, then there will be a corresponding change in Volts or Amps.

So, if voltage is lowered to your system, the system will generally compensate by consuming more Amps. That keeps the power constant and everything working.

Except for one small problem. If you remember, Amps is like a very large current of water. It can be destructive. Most waterways are designed to hold so much water/current. If you have lots more water going through them, they overflow their banks and cause trouble.

Its the same with amps. If your current drops, amps goes up and trouble starts. Many circuits are designed to only carry or handled so many amps. If you 'up' the amps by just 10% you could reduce their life by 90% of the maximum. You will increase the heat everywhere in systems and heat is a problem too that wears things out. You might also have many more circuit breaker trips which are good that your system is being protected, but unnecessary breaker trips can wear things out too.

So if you learned one or two things from this article it should be that most things want to consume power and that if voltage is dropped, power demand is constant, so the amps go up and that is a bad thing overall.

Oh yea, amps going through wires, exceeding the ratings can cause fires. That is good to know too.

RV Basics : An Electrical Primer : Amps and Volts

This will seem very basic for many RV folks. I've noticed that many, many RV'ers seem to be very technical people. But I think there are a few very simple articles I need to write to help new folks along and I get to double check my facts and learn along the way.

This is going to be the first article in a series of 3 or 4 in the next few days that attempts to address a few simple electrical basics. I have written a short article on RV electrical basics AC versus DC, but I want to keep going.

I thought about this article series because a friend of a friend of mine sells a thing called powermaster. Powermaster is a device that (for now I'll just be brief so go with it) basically 'fixes' wimpy electrical systems.

There were a few questions that came from powermaster in my mind...

• Are wimpy electrical systems commonplace in RV parks?
• Will it really hurt your appliances if you have a wimpy electrical system?
• How much fixing can something do?
• What are the implications of fixing?

As I thought about those questions, I really needed to step through the math. And that got me to here - the first article in my little series on RV electrical systems!

Off we go...

Today, lets tackle Volts and Amps. If you MUST know, both terms come from some old guys names who were tinkering with electricity over a 100 years ago. I'm not (honest - this is all from memory) going to look them up, but the names were Voltaire and Ampere. They were two different people.

In America, most outlets are called 110V. The V is for Volt. So in your house, you constantly think Volts.

I've noticed that in RV Parks, everything is Amps. 30 Amp and 50 Amp.

But honestly, you need both. Volts and Amps are ying and yang. Antimatter and matter. 

I can explain this without being technical. 

When you refer to electricity, believe it or not, it has many properties, but for our purposes, you can describe electricity we need with Volts and Amps. Volts and Amps can refer to BOTH AC and DC, but I don't want you to get hung up on AC or DC. Just know that electricity has volts and amps to describe it.

Now, think of electricity as a river. You know that flowing water has power. It can turn a crank, create electricity, destroy cities, and so forth. So really, the POWER is the key word. Water has power. Well electricity has power too. In many ways its the same.

How powerful can water be? Well there are two questions? How much water are we dealing with (volume of flow and total volume)?

If I have a big LAKE and I compare it to a tiny POND they have a different capability or potential to be powerful. This potential to be powerful is the same as voltage!! 

Now, if I poke a hole in the side of the big LAKE versus the tiny POND, then the amount of water that comes through the hole is how much power is being delivered now! If the hole is tiny, then the power is small, if the hole is a crater, then the power is big.

If you poke a BIG hole in the BIG lake you could destroy a village and the flow might flow for days and weeks. If you poke a BIG hole in a LITTLE lake you might simply just get wet. This is an example of POWER. It is the combination of things.

So Voltage and Amps together define POWER. Actually, the TRUE mathematics is (Power = V * I).

And POWER is what gets things done. Power is what cools your food, cools your RV, heats your food, heats your RV, runs your computer, and so on. True in life (power gets things done) and true with electricity.

POWER in your RV is measured in WATTS. 1 volt (times) 1 amp = 1 watt. 

Now if I tell you that your Air Conditioning takes 10 Amps and you know that the Air Conditioner factory ASSUMED that you will have a 120 Volt system, then you have a 1200Watt  air conditioner.

Don't worry too much about exact numbers, if you feel good about the water analogy, and have kind of an understanding of volts and amps now, then we'll do great. 

Lets talk more about POWER tomorrow or Monday!

RV Basics : RV Electrical System Basics

RV Electrical System Basics

For a person new to RV's, the RV is a perplexing beast. I haven't found lots of beginner materials, so I thought I would write up a little information that can help newbies. Almost everything I am learning comes from Puma, our trusty travel trailer.

Types of Electrical Systems in an RV

There are two types of electricity in the world, DC and AC. AC is what you get from the wall socket in your house. DC is the type of electricity that is used in cars and is very compatible with battery systems.

An RV has both types of electrical systems. The AC power enters the RV and then is routed to many appliances that operate on AC. It also routes to a device called a converter which converts AC power to DC. The DC from the converter goes to several DC appliances and to the battery. When the AC power goes away (because you are camping without a connection to AC power for example) then DC power from the battery is sent to the DC appliances.

Some devices are 'dual powered' in odd ways so that you can use them without a connection to AC power and still have many modern conveniences.

Refrigerator : The refrigerator is dual powered but not like you think. It can work off of AC power when you are connected to AC, but it can also keep food cold when it is not connected to AC power by using LP gas (surprise). So you can have cold food when you are dry camping (no hookups)!

The following items ARE NOT operable UNLESS you are connected to AC power : Roof Air Conditioner, Microwave Oven, AC converter, AC power outlets, some lights, and the TV.

Puma does not have a generator but if it did, then we could watch TV in the jungle.

RV Electrical : Outdoor Light Bulb

[ Updated with clarifications ]

From RV Park Review videos, RV basics, and travel stories with Sheri and Marlan

One of the interesting and NEAT things about an RV is that everything on one hand is simpler (maybe) and everything is different from what you might know about lighting based on a typical house or car.

For example, an RV has a DC (direct current) system (simpler) and a familiar AC (alternating current) system. I find it interesting to learn which is used in different ways.12V DC lighting is probably the most obvious use of the DC system. You can run off the rv battery without power or a generator for your rv lights (and hot water ignition, water pressure via rv water pump, and finally your refrigerator).

Recently, we had a light bulb burn out in our 'porch'. Well, really, that was the light that goes under neath the awning and would be an outside light for when you have guests over and are sitting outside but don't want to be in the dark.

My (uneducated) expectation would be that the light was a normal light bulb. However, when I took off the cover or diffuser, I was somewhat surprised to see a little tiny 'baby' bulb which is I have pictured.

That is a 12 Volt DC bulb which is really widely available in any automotive section in Target or Walmart. So it was cheap and easy to replace (Sylvania 1141 LL). To replace, it is simply a press-twist-release and then push the bulb in - twist - and let up. The twist-in rv lights are called bayonet style lights. By the way, you can find excellent replacement rv led lights that have bayonet connections. Oh and put back on the diffuser. 

My assumption is that DC was chosen so you could have a tiny bit of rv outdoor lighting while on battery. At least that makes sense to me. Most of the lighting is DC.

Which brings me to another idea. RV's will be great candidates for using rv LED lighting which will provide a nice degree of added luminance at really no cost in power. More on that later!

RV Electrical System : Our water heater kept tripping the breaker

When we moved Puma from dry storage to our spot at Millers Creek RV Park we ran into a small mystery.

When we first put power and water onto her, we kept tripping the breaker.

As we studied the situation, we traced the cause of the circuit breaker trips to the hot water heater. In fact, we could correlate the click of the starter (for the gas hot water heater) to the click of the circuit breaker trip.

Our HYPOTHESIS is that we may not have gotten the tank full (oddly unlikely, but we were not careful and cannot rule it out) and that somehow caused the breaker to trip - even though it is a gas hot water heater.

We experimented with this for awhile but never found anything conclusive to say what was causing the circuit breaker to trip. We'll keep an eye on this and when we figure it out, we'll update THIS ARTICLE.

RV Toad : Neat article on an electric cooper

While the RV is just a tent in the back of the mini-cooper, this was a really interesting article on an electric car  charging from the campground pedestal. Since it seems that there is a preponderance of very technical people who are RV'ers  (retired military, engineers, mechanics, and more) I thought this was of general interest to everyone.

Click HERE for the article about the electric mini-cooper.

Very Useful Electrical Wiring Diagram for your Hitch Connector

This is one of the best electrical diagrams I've seen. I'll be using this in the future. Its all the way down to 45 degrees F in Texas right now (brrrrr) so I'll wait to do too much outside stuff.

We'll use this for our travel trailer as we need to figure out a problem with our trailer brakes.

http://www.etrailer.com/faq-wiring.aspx