# LED Lightbulb Swap



## mangothemadmonk (Aug 6, 2006)

I have a Hymer B584 Wreg (2000) and I am wanting to change the little 12v G4?? bulbs to LEDs as in the link below

www.ultraleds.co.uk/default.php?cPath=74

Can I just swap or do I have to change anything. It says something about (volt reg) but am not sure what that means. I have read that someone fitted similar and they just burnt out. Don't want to do the same as they aint cheap.
Any thoughts.
Cheers.
Johnny F


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## legend654 (Mar 28, 2006)

Do you have the Halogen 12V 20 Watt G4 35MM lamps at present? Do you plan to change the holders as well? Mind if I ask your reason for changing to LED?

Guy


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## klubnomad (Mar 6, 2006)

mangothemadmonk said:


> I have a Hymer B584 Wreg (2000) and I am wanting to change the little 12v G4?? bulbs to LEDs as in the link below
> 
> www.ultraleds.co.uk/default.php?cPath=74
> 
> Can I just swap or do I have to change anything. It says something about (volt reg) but am not sure what that means. Johnny F


If you look at the spec of the bulbs, you will see that they have a voltage regulator built in to keep the volts at 12v. They should be OK

HTH

Dave

656


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## Fatalhud (Mar 3, 2006)

Hi
I spent £35 on 4 similar 21 led lamps
fitted them into existing holders
the 2 ceiling light units had to be modified (hacked) to make the lamps fit
the under unit reading lamps were a pane to get into and i managed to damage one in the process
after fitting the light given out was very disappointing
I had read that they give out a white light
wrong this was a yellow glow
perhaps i bought the wrong lamps but site only had 1 type
I have now replaced the original lamps back in
wife can read again
I personally would only consider changing to LED if power consumption is your sole goal
95% of the time i use electric hook up so in hind site waisted my money


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## ethnicall (Dec 24, 2005)

I have replaced one of my G4 bulbs with the warm white one shown at the bottom of the UltraLeds page. This was used in one of the spotlights over the bed, the other spotlight still has the original bulb so I could compare. The bulb I replaced was 10 Watt and the LED is about the same brightness. It fitted straight in to the holder without any fiddling about and the covers clipped back over the top. I expect the cool white light would be brighter. 
I also bought an LED bulb for my flexible spotlight which fitted fine as well.
Just had 2 nights away without hookup had them on all evening and they worked fine, they are good for saving power but it's a shame they cost so much. 

Mark


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## chrisgog (May 17, 2005)

Just adding myself to gain info


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## mangothemadmonk (Aug 6, 2006)

Thanks all for your replies.
Hi Guy, my reasons are for battery savings as we are doing more and more wild camping and LEDs use far less than standard bulbs. And again standard bulbs use more than fluorescence.
I was thinking of using an on-board gas genny to power everything but now am thinking greener and going for Solar panels and adding a third battery. We only have a gas boiler and 12v blown air heating so 240v on sites only powers the 3-way fridge on mains and tops batteries up. Well we can run the fridge on gas and harness the sun to top up the batts so we wont need mains hook up.
Cheers.
Johnny F


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## legend654 (Mar 28, 2006)

We have gone for the latter option. Solar plus extra battery. Also use fridge in gas mode. We have one LED fitted, but generally use some of the G4 halogens as they provide a softer light. 

Cheers

Guy


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## mangothemadmonk (Aug 6, 2006)

legend654 said:


> We have gone for the latter option. Solar plus extra battery. Also use fridge in gas mode. We have one LED fitted, but generally use some of the G4 halogens as they provide a softer light.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Guy


Hi Guy. I was under the impression that leds are softer than the halogens is this not so? My halogens are crazily bright.
Which light unit did you change on the Hymer and what LED did you use?
Cheers.
Johnny F


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## legend654 (Mar 28, 2006)

The LED is above the door, and we leave on over night. What wattage of Halogen are you using, 20 Watt?

Guy


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## gaspode (May 9, 2005)

mangothemadmonk said:


> Hi Guy. I was under the impression that leds are softer than the halogens is this not so? My halogens are crazily bright.
> Which light unit did you change on the Hymer and what LED did you use?
> Cheers.
> Johnny F


The technology involved in LED lighting is developing frighteningly quickly. Even an LED lamp purchased a few weeks ago may differ substantially from one produced today in output power and colour. So called "white" LEDs can vary dramatically in colour temperature from a blueish tint to a greenish hue. The only way to be certain of what you're buying is to see a sample in action and that's never easy where mail order is concerned. It simply doesn't follow for instance that a bulb boasting 40 LEDs will give off more light than one containing 20 LEDs, the individual LEDs can have vastly different outputs.

Undoubtably the lighting medium of the future will be LED based, but for the moment they're far from their peak of development so tread carefully.


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## Boff (May 10, 2005)

gaspode said:


> Undoubtably the lighting medium of the future will be LED based, but for the moment they're far from their peak of development so tread carefully.


Hi,

I totally agree here.

However, *current commercially available white LEDs* have about the same efficiency as halogen bulbs. Not more!

So, if you want to go for battery savings while maintaining the light output then go for fluorescent lights. If you still have ordinary light bulbs anywhere then replace them by halogen bulbs with half or fluorescent lights with 1/5th of the wattage.

If you can cope with a little less light then reduce the wattage of your halogens or fluoros.

Best Regards,
Gerhard


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## Waleem (Nov 1, 2006)

I agree strongly with the above. We tried to convert to LED lighting, but found them too dim and cold, so swapped back to halogen. However, our original halogens were way too bright (20W) so we swapped them all for 10W bulbs which is much better. G4 bulbs are cheap from Ikea, incidentally. (Thats where we got all ours!)


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