Ebay China LED Oppinions

clubhouse · 06-07-2012, 01:46 PM

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=130695121179

For those of you who already have made full or partial conversions to the China Mfg LEDs available on Ebay what do you think? Attached are the ones I purchased, I think severa here have the same ones.

Anyone have safety concerns using these LEDs?

I recently purcahsed 5 to test. The service from ebay seller OUYOU2012 was as advertised. I receive the LEDs from China quickly (~10 days), with the 3 adapters and each light up. I did have to make sure I got the adaptor polarity correct in the fixture, so a couple I had to flip and reinsert.

For my test I Installed them in two of the overhead fixtures and 1 single light bunk fixture. The color is certainly not as warm of a white and the halogen bulbs being replaced, but still acceptable for us.

I am concerned about the heat generated. I have seen atleast one person here post about heat disipation from the 48-Led PCBs. I have only run mine for a couple of hours, but I was surprised by how hot the LED and PCB got. I expected the LEDS to be warm at best, mine are hot. Not a hot as the halogen, but you certainly wouldn't want to touch one that can been on for some time.

Looking forward to hear others experience with these LED replacement lights.

Jagiven · 06-07-2012, 03:11 PM

I have purchased a few different LEDs, but I have not received them (yet). I mostly purchased Warm colored LEDs (3000K-3500K). The ones you show are more white (5000K). I would not be too worried about the heat. LEDs are about 15% efficient (15% of the energy makes light, 85% of the energy makes heat), while incandescent if I recall is .5% efficient (.5 light/99.5% heat). If you are concerned about the heat, and if you have a laser thermometer, you could check the lamp fixture temperature. I would check board, the backside of the lamp fixture (just unscrew it from the ceiling and let it hang there), and the lens cover, after it has been running for a while. I would do that for both the incandescent lights and the LED.

Another way to think about it, is in wattage usage. The incandescent bulb uses about 13W of power, and the LED board uses about 1W of power. Now consider an electric space heater. Many of them talk about how much heat you get out of Low, Med, and High settings as wattage. More heat you want the higher the wattage. Back to lighting, so at most, the LEDs are only going to give you 1W of heat verses 13W of heat from an incandescent bulb. The issue is most people consider LEDs as efficient (when compared to incandescent bulb), and think they will be cool to the touch.

clubhouse · 06-07-2012, 04:11 PM

Thanks Jagiven. I guess I am just so used to indicator LEDs not lighting LEDs. Right out of school I spend severl years in the Semiconductor field, before LEDS where used for lighting but rather indication. Your explination of power efficiency certainly makes sence. I'll measure the temp compared to the non led fixtures and see what the difference is. Only time will see how the LED assemblies hold up, but at $3/each even a year would be good.

Anyone have any "real time" using these yet that can offer some perspective.

tls001 · 06-07-2012, 05:39 PM

I changed all of the lights in our TT to the white 48 LED boards and have to say they have been fantastic, they do get fairly warm but no where near the temp the original bulbs got. We had around 18 lights to change. Been using them for several months and no problems at all, and the brighter light is great.

Chakara · 06-07-2012, 07:10 PM

Ditto what he (tls001) said

Love em....

-Chak

clubhouse · 06-07-2012, 10:18 PM

Thanks everyone for the feedback. We are going out next week for several days, we let that trip determine if we are going to order more for the rest of the fixtures.

dddire · 06-08-2012, 05:33 AM

we have a few of those exact units. They work great so far.. only used a few trips. We have the rest on order to kit out the trailer and looking forward too it. One note, I found one of the double sided tape to loose it grip do to hit shrinkage. I'll replace all the tape with someone better later.

RedHorse1 · 06-08-2012, 06:43 AM

I have one 36 led installed at present. Noticed that it is warmer than expected but with so many similar reports I'm guessing it's normal. My double sided tape is also not up to the task. I wonder if "real" 3M tape would fare any better.
I have a bag of another dozen waiting for me to install in the rest of the trailer. The bride and I are going to Port AransasTX next week for a few days. Since it's just the two of us maybe I'll have some free time to install.

cablerum · 06-08-2012, 07:05 AM

I bought these ones and little while ago and they work nicely.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...m=261028088287

They are not as bright as the original halogen, maybe only half as bright & also softer, but bright enough for us. I have 13 bulbs in total & I swapped out 10 of them but & left 3 halogens in case I really need the extra light. The LED's are nice for the lights right above your head when sitting at the table or on the couch. I found the halogens blinding, these are much easier on the eyes and not as hot. I also changed out the bathroom to these as having the light not as bright in the bathroom is very nice, when it's 3am and you don't want to be blinded! Another plus for us with these LED's are that since we have a small child that goes to bed before us and don't want to be in the dark, leaving on one LED on the opposite end of the trailer is almost like a night light so that works well. If you had to leave on a halogen it would just be too bright for sleeping.

I bought 20 of these in total, got them all for $14 with free shipping. Took about 2 weeks of so to get delivered to Canada.

3'senough · 06-08-2012, 07:13 AM

I've done this mod on both my TT's and in the current one I have the 921 style boards in the kids bunks. They are only 32LED size if I recall correctly and I have not had an issue with them yet. They are applied to the reflector material in the fixture and were taken out of my old unit 2 years ago. As for the halogen replacements I use the puck style for my fixtures and they are much cooler than the original bulbs. Warm white is what we choose for them and all were bought off ebay after a 1 bulb sample to confirm it's what we wanted.

iowahank · 06-08-2012, 08:49 AM

I had changed out all of the fixtures in my last trailer. Had only one LED panel partially fail in about a year's worth of use (we snowbirded last winter). In other words, constant, day in, day out usage as opposed to the weekend use for most RV'ers.
Replacing the lights in the new FW is definitely on the list and that 1st link showed a sales price so I can save about $40.

Jagiven · 06-08-2012, 09:59 AM

Cablerum, I also ordered some smaller bulbs similar to those, I just wish they had their Lumen rating on them. My goal is to replace the switches in the dual fixtures to on/off/on. On side will have the bright lights and the other side will have the dimmer bulb. Biggest issue I am having is I cannot locate a drop in replacement switch, I know they are out there. When I get the trailer back from the dealer next week, I will pull a light down and try to find a manufactures mark.

jbwjbw · 06-08-2012, 06:22 PM

I bought some of those and get hot, very very hot, like 185 degrees!. Wished I had not bought them. I've used some of other LEDs that were not the panels that are not very hot at all. Not quite as bright but you could actually touch them when they were on.

Chakara · 06-08-2012, 09:06 PM

Yep - get your sample - test it - and then order quickly from the exact same vendor and preferably the same actual auction. Things change fast on ebay.

-Chak

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