LED Lights

The LED lights will run cool. Much much cooler than normal lamps

Hi John & Helen.
There are no heat problems with led lights.
I have just changed all the interior lights in our van & I am very pleased with the result. I purchase all my lights on ebay(delivered from China).They were heaps cheaper than items at local caravan shop.

Cheers.
Vince

Hi John & Helen, we have an 04 Jayco Pop Top & recently changed our lighting to LED. Firstly as already said you will not experience any heating problems, that is one of the reasons why LED is more efficient, the power goes into lighting , not generating heat.

Secondly we found that the level of lighting (lux?) is soooo much better.

We purchased ours though our local Jayco Agent, they were not cheap at about $27 per bulb replacement times I think 12 bulbs = $324. No mucking around with adaptors /strips etc, just a simple change over, take out the old bulbs & stick the new LED replacement in.

But... coupled with our Solar panel, the ability to stay on non powered sites & not needing to increase expensive & limited life Gel batteries we calculated it a better financial option.

Many other contributors on this sight will be better able to advise you on cheaper places to source LED lighting for your van, I'm a dinosaur & not able to find out how to take advantage of this wonderful world of the internet!!
But do it, make the change, you will not be dissapointed!! Cheers.

Hi westskip, you will have a different type of light and it does not appear to have any sort of heat with it as it is cool to the touch.
We have fitted these to our caravan and they are great.

Bushy.

Hi John. If you happen to be near Brisbane this lady is exellent with all things LED. She will be at the show or you can contact her through these following ways. Power Panda P/L www.ppled.com.au 0432 008 998 Christina Lu
We purchased globes and LED strip lighting to replace halogen in an Outback Sterling and flouros my brother's Baroma and they are great. Much brighter than the original halogen in mine and the flouros in his and as others have said, a much whiter light. We paid $12.50 for each globe. They have 9 or 12 led's, depending on how bright you want to go. Cheers,Bob

John & Helen

Here are some tips !

You basically need to get yourselves into a camping shop, and ask the people to light them up in front of you. For brightness value ect

Having said that, remember that any light will attract heaps of bugs, especially in the outback, so I suggest you may look at a yellow sleve.
You see, bugs are not supposed to be atttracted to the yellow.
But if yellow is the only light around, then you guessed it, the yellow sleve theory will not work.

Yellow cellephale paper is a good start, and that is what is basically in our Versa light. (that comes with the light)..
But if you do now want to spend a fortume on a Versa Light, then a much cheaper light, with some Yellow Cellephane paper wrap will do the same thing.


Now for the tricky bit !
White light to attract bugs, betterer !

You need to have diversion light, so you can put the white light some 20 - 30 mts away from your camp so the bugs ect, go there and leave you in peace.


Works a treat .

Cheers
Bucky

Hi all

I have purchased a few and have little desitaion buying from overseas - just be sure of sizes before you buy - especially room inside the light fitting.

Some others may have better advice on this than me but ther are a couple of types of LED available - the older Lens type and the newer SMD (Surface Mounted Diode) technology - notably different in appearance.

I believe the SMD technology is becoming the newer "standard" as it is brighter.

Apparently the important thing about the SMD (any of them for that mattter) is removing heat from the diode and this is where some "cheaper" ones fall down in the way they are mounted on the substrate and the diodes can overheat and die (albeit we are talking low levels of heat compared to filament globes - but it is heat none the less).

Are the ones sold in local shops better than eBay Hong Kong ones ?? - probably doubtful unless you know they are being made in Aus or somewhere you could believe manufacturing is better.

An Australian site I would look at is

http://www.brightlightautoparts.com/LEDReplacementGlobes.html

but they are still "expensive" compared to eBay from overseas.

Ken

Hi again,

Many thanks to those members/visitors who replied to my question.

John & Helen