LED Bulb Brightness

LED Lights Brightness

Like others we found the interior lights in our 2016 PC excessively bright.  Shortly after picking up our unit I disconnected one of the bulbs which helped significantly.  Even with only one bulb we frequently found the lights brighter than what we needed or wanted.

I was able to find warm white LED bulbs with T10 bases on Amazon.  The bulbs are rated for 1.5 watts.  Amazon also had mini toggle switches in "single pole double throw" (SPDT) configuration.  By replacing one of the PC supplied bulbs with the lower wattage bulb in each fixture and swapping out the toggle switch we now have the ability to select either the brighter PC bulb or the lower light output bulb.  For most needs the lower output provides adequate lighting.  It also appears to be a little warmer than the higher output bulb which we like.

Because the lower wattage bulb is tubular rather than flat like the PC supplied bulbs after removing the PC bulb from each fixture I added a strip of aluminum tape to the fixture as a reflector.

An added benefit of the optimized light output bulb is it only draws about 0.1 amps whereas the higher output bulb requires about 0.6 amps.  When boondocking any power saving to minimize battery drain is certainly welcome.

Below are a couple photos of the installation.

Renotse,

Here is the link to the lights https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06VVMFHTL/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I paid $16.99 delivered about a month ago.  It looks like prices have increased.


This is the switch link https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B88CD26/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The price was $11.92 delivered.

Has anyone tried dabbing every-other LED on your original fixtures with a permanent marker?  If the light beams too bright through it, the maybe dabbing every LED.  Maybe 2 or 3 dabs per LED.  If you change your mind, just wipe clean with rubbing alcohol.

Jim ordered  additional  light covers and tried an experiment of painting them various tints to see if he could make them tolerable. So far his paint or whatever he applied has not been endurable so not yet and he has been doing other things so that project is ion hold briefly.  The. New lights I saw on the line  and over the new big window were an improvement over what we have in our 2016. ....We use only briefly and have a lamp on the fining table and one in the bedroom. They are better than over bright. The light string under the awning is great and gives off a nice light so Miss Elle can have her last brief walk out before bedtime on the road. We are not in the dark completely.

Quote from: fandj on August 24, 2017, 08:55:45 am

LED Lights Brightness

I was able to find warm white LED bulbs with T10 bases on Amazon.  The bulbs are rated for 1.5 watts.  Amazon also had mini toggle switches in "single pole double throw" (SPDT) configuration.

That's nice. Could you post the amazon links? I really want to do this mod. I am not a fan of overly bright lights in the RV at night. My last RV had dimmers on the recessed LED lights. We used them every night when we were in there.

I had originally asked PC to put the same style dimmers in my new RV. They added that option to my build list but later indicated they could not accommodate it.  Now I need another way to dim the lights.

Thanks

Go here: 
https://www.etrailer.com/RV-Lighting/Arcon/AR51267.htm