LED spotlights

[Barbara]

Does anyone have any experience of using these? They use very little electricity(2W), but do they give enough light to read by? I've seen them on suppliers' web sites, such as Rainbow conversions. (I want to specify the lighting for my own conversion, so I'm starting from scatch, rather than replacing existing lighting. We will have several standard 12v strip lights, but thought spotlights of some kind would be a useful addition). Any views or recommendations appreciated.

[Dave Newell]

Hi Barbara, yes we have LED spot reading lights in our motorhome and all I can say is they're brilliant (pun intended). They give plenty of light for reading by. I wired our LED spots through a one hour timer so that if you fall asleep while reading they automatically go off after one hour. If you want to read on after the hour is up you just press the button for another hours worth of reading light. We also have LED strip lights in the kitchen and bathroom and they give plenty of light in those areas. I wouldn't use the LED strip units for general lounge lighting though as they're pure white and it can be a bit of a cold light.

 

D.

[RonB]

Dave - I seem to have read somewhere that you need a number of LED's in a group to get an effective light. Have they now produced a single LED that does the job or are you talking about a group? If a group do they really only use 2 watts?

 

Ron

[Guest peter]

Hi Ron, have a look here and all will be revealed.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=97588&C=Maplin&U=SearchTop&T=L%20E%20D%20LIGHTS&doy=22m4

[Dave Newell]

Hi Ron, our LED spots have a group of four in each fitting, I can't remember off the top of my head what the Wattage is but it is very low. They take about 5/8ths of nowt to power them.

 

D.

[oldie]

8-) I see the LED spotlights at Maplin are 12v AC. How do they work on the van?

[GJH]

Dave Newell - 2007-04-23 7:14 AM

 

Hi Ron, our LED spots have a group of four in each fitting, I can't remember off the top of my head what the Wattage is but it is very low. They take about 5/8ths of nowt to power them.

 

D.

Hello Dave,

In our van we have Eyeball Spotlights - like the ones shown at http://www.towsure.com/product/2463-Brass_Eyeball_Spot_Light:_12v_10w. Can these be replaced by the LEDs which you use?

 

Graham

[Dave Newell]

Hi Graham, i'm not sure if there is a direct replacement for the bulb in that type but you could replace the whole fitting with a positionable LED spot.

 

Oldie, LEDs do not work on AC. The ones you're looking at from Maplin may have a transformer with them. Give us the part No for Maplin and I'll have a look.

 

D.

[Mel E]

Oldie,

 

The price £12.99 quoted is just for the lamp. A transformer is extra. They are quoted as 12v AC because, used in the house via a transformer, that's what they run on (transformers only reduce the voltage they don't rectify it - i.e., turn it from AC to DC).

 

However, LEDs, just like filament bulbs will run on AC or DC just the same - we use the same 12Volt - 10Watt halogen bulbs in our motorhome and house.

 

As they'r 2.1 Watts, they'll consume about a fifth of the amount of such a 10 watt halogen unit, but they cost over 10 times the price - though they'll last for just about ever. And with 30 LEDs they'll be amazingy bright - much better than a 10 watt halogen.

 

I see Maplins also do a mini 3-LED light for £8.99.

 

Mel E

====

[GJH]

Dave Newell - 2007-04-23 11:59 AM

 

Hi Graham, i'm not sure if there is a direct replacement for the bulb in that type but you could replace the whole fitting with a positionable LED spot.

Thanks Dave. Should have made myself clear - yes, it is the fitting I would think of replacing. I'll look around to see if I can find some the same size.

 

Graham

[Clive]

I wonder if anyone will be flogging LED lighting at Peterborough?

 

 

[Mel B]

Clive ... you going into spotlight selling and touting for business then? ;-)

[Derek Uzzell]

This is something I wrote at the beginning of the year for my motorhome club magazine...

 

"LED Lighting for Motorhomes

 

Our 2005 Hobby T-600 FC has six 12V 'reading-light' spotlights fitted with MR16 10W halogen bulbs, and three 12V down-lighters with G4 10W bulbs. At 80Ah the capacity of the Hobby's leisure battery is relatively small and this makes attractive the idea of LED replacements for the standard bulbs.

 

Ultra Leds Ltd (www.ultraleds.co.uk) market a comprehensive selection of LED lighting products and, in December 2006, I purchased from them two MR16 LED light-units at a cost of £6.99 each, plus £3.49 carriage (£17.47 overall). Each light-unit has 30 LEDs and, for comparison purposes, I ordered one unit in "Cool White" colour and the other in "Warm White".

 

The LED light-units are dimensionally identical to normal MR16 bulbs, so there were no difficulties fitting them. The Cool White variant gives out an icy bluish-white light that I doubt anyone would find tolerable in a motorhome's living-area (unless they were fans of Ghostbusters movies or had a fetish for arc welding!), however the Warm White unit closely matches the colour of the light from the ordinary bulb - perhaps a mite paler, but not much. The LED-units are supposed to produce 60 lumens (Cool White) and 50 lumens (Warm White), but it's difficult to judge how much illumination these figures translate to compared with the 10W halogen bulb. The latter's reflector provides a relatively directional beam, whereas the LED-unit has no reflector as such so the light is more diffuse. I'd guess that the Warm White LED-unit's output is slightly down on the normal bulb's but, again, not by much. Anyway, I've now bought a further 5 Warm White LED units and replaced the rest of the Hobby's MR16 bulbs.

 

The Ultra Leds website carries useful reviews on many of the products. One reviewer touched on the fact that a G4 LED 'panel' (as mentioned in a Caravan Club Magazine piece by John Wickersham) was thicker than an ordinary G4 halogen bulb and, consequently, the bulb-protection glass had needed to be removed from his lamps to allow G4 LED panels to be fitted. I realised that I would have to do the same with the Hobby's downlighters and that this action could compromise how the lamp assembled. I also noted that the original G4 bulb was partially inset in a cutaway in the lamp's body and I thought this might inhibit fitting the significantly bulkier LED panel. Ultra Leds offer G4 panels with 14 or 21 LEDs but, after trying out the 30-LED MR16 units, I had serious doubts that even the 21 LED version (again with no reflector) would compete adequately with the halogen bulb in terms of light output. Because the Hobby's G4-equipped lamps light the kitchen work area this would be unacceptable, so I've retained the halogen bulbs for the downlighters.

 

This exercise proved that a degree of preliminary thought will be worthwhile before deciding to swap traditional bulbs for LED versions. The main advantage of LED 'bulbs' for the leisure-vehicle owner is the small amount of 12V power they consume, but there's a good chance that, to obtain adequate levels of light, more LED lights will be needed. Thinking about the number of light fixtures in a modern motorhome, then considering the cost of increasing that number by perhaps a third, then taking into account the big difference in price between an ordinary bulb and a LED one, currently there seems little incentive to encourage motorhome manufacturers to standardise on LED light-units in preference to conventional bulbs."

 

I've now had practical experience of using the LED lights for after-dark reading and they've proved to be perfectly adequate for that purpose.

 

 

[Clive]

Nice one Derek,

I fitted some Hella map reading lamps at all 4 corners of our MH bed many years back. These have 5 watt Quartz hallogen bulbs so fall somewhere between the LED,s and 10watt Quartz down lighters in terms of light output and are warm.

 

When the LED lamp technology goes to the next step (Bigger brighter LEDS in stead of multiples) and the price falls because of a new "domestic" market fueled by the "green" revolution the temptation to change to them will be increased.

 

Technology eh!

 

C.

 

 

[Derek Uzzell]

Clive,

 

The Ultraleds website advertises some 12V bulbs that employ a single (or a small number of) 'high power' LED(s). I notice that there's also now a 48-LED version of the MR16 bulb.

 

I would have liked to have sampled all the available LED bulbs that would have fitted my Hobby's lights, but this would have been an expensive exercise and I restricted myself to just the two I thought most likely to be suitable. It would be interesting to know whether the 48-LED MR16 bulbs would be an improvement on the 30-LED bulbs I've got, or perhaps would be too powerful. However, at £9.99 each, I shan't be making that comparison.