brightest 1157 panels for RV use

[idiggplants]

hi all. first post here. hope it is in the right place. we have an off grid cabin running 12v deep cycle batteries, with RV style fixtures running 1157/1156 bulbs. we are looking to upgrade to LED lighting. so far we have replaced one bulb with a LED panel. the things are awesome, super bright... probably twice the output as our incandecents(510 lumens), with 40% of the draw. the problem is, they are like 30 bucks a light. we have 10 fixtures in our cabin. thats 300 bucks. im really hoping there are cheaper alternatives out there.


for my fourwheeler ive finally found a cheap alternative to rigid industries lights. about 1/3 the price. same brightness. same quality. its a chinese knockoff brand. ive been hoping that i could find something similar for our led lighting in our cabin. anybody have any good brands that offer legitimately bright led panels?


thanks! please go easy on the newb!

-digg

 

[-Virgil-]

Greetings, there. Welcome to the board. I've removed your link/mention of the vendor you bought the panels from. Please don't take offense; unfortunately we've had problems with shills in the past, so now we like to have a sense of where new posters are coming from (with a bit of track record/post history) first.

Sooner or later (probably sooner) you will discover that in fact there's no such thing as "same quality at 1/3 the price". We get what we pay for -- and we don't get what we don't pay for. There is an awful lot of trash on the market, much of it in the category of "Chinese knockoff". Of course, sometimes price is the chief criterion and everything else is secondary, in which case a cheap lamp wins. But make sure to have contingency plans for when some aspect of the lamp's cheapness comes to bite you -- because it will.

1156 and 1157 aren't the same kind of bulb. I'm guessing your RV type fixtures use an 1156. You might want to try out Philips' new 1156 white LED drop-in retrofit, which can be bought for about $23/pair (such as here or here.) Beyond that, it's going to be a matter of buying product from a variety of websites and trying them out until you find some that work the way you want at a price you like...but that experimental buying stage can run up a big bill fast.

 

[GaryM]

Do you live where there are Ham radio swap meets? I've purchased several led panels made to replace interior automotive lights there. They are usually about 1.5" square and have maybe 12 to 16 leds mounted. Included are adaptors so they can be powered from most common automotive lamp sockets. See here on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009E1BW08/?tag=cpf0b6-20
Before trying to answer your question I didn't know that they were available on Amazon.

 

[idiggplants]

Thanks folks. No worries about removing the link. Was nervous about doing that but i felt it was relative.

1157 vs 1156 doesn't matter much in this case. I splice and solder the panel direct. The ones we got are super bright com paired to the eBay specials I've gotten in the past, so maybe we will have to just suck it up and go with them.

Like I said. The automotive lights like rigid are starting to see some serious competition from cheaper options. Wasn't sure if drop in style bulbs were going the same route.

Thanks again.
-digg

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[idiggplants]

well, i ordered one of the above linked to panels from amazon. we shall see if its as bright as people make it out to be. its not going to be here for a while tho with snail mail from china.

im hoping that at the very least it will be more efficient than the incandescent bulb and i can use it as a reading light by the bed to save energy.