A dead battery in my SO's car got me thinking about ways to reduce the chance of that happening again – to either of us. Why not replace the interior car lights with LED versions? Sure enough, hitting the Web revealed gazillions of choices. Car interiors commonly use wedge-base bulbs, and festoon bulbs, the name given to cylindrical lamps with a contact cap at each end. Being a cheapskate, even the reasonable prices I was seeing were more than I wanted to spend. After all, how many times have we all ended up with junk when trying a relatively new product category? Sometimes paying more results in better product, but often not. So, this seemed like a good time to see what China Inc. had for sale. I was not disappointed! (if you don't know what I mean by China Inc. – well, I'm a bit hesitant to tell you, fearing charges of corrupting the youth. Let's just say that there are a number of Websites out there, based in China, offering free shipping to anywhere in the world, selling almost anything imaginable: tea to T-shirts, Arduinos to aardvark keyrings with LED noses, etc.

Some of my recent purchases: a good $18 micro-sized quad-copter, and LED strip lighting for $1/m.) My car has 5W festoon lamps in the front doors, two 8W reading (map) lights, and an 8W dome light. The cargo dome light is a 13W wedge-base. That’s what the car manual says. I didn’t measure them. Figure 1  L-R: The 13W cargo light (T-10 base…I think), the too-small replacement I mistakenly got for it (T-5 base), and the 3-LED "8W" replacement Table 1  A summary of claimed and measured LED light characteristics Estimated dropping resistor No surprise: the 3-LED lamps are more sensitive to the bus voltage. The shocker is claimed vs. actual power. Perhaps claimed-power numbers refer to the incandescent they replace! But the lumen specs must be pure wishful thinking. FYI, the 1-LED lamps were about $1.25 each; the 3-LED lamps, about $2. Obviously, a 1-LED lamp incurs a ridiculous waste of power with a 12V-15V automotive supply. Even so, it'll likely use less power than the incandescent it replaces, assuming a directional beam is okay.

Still, 3-LED parts seem preferable. Not that you can rely on those Chinese sites to get their facts right. Both the above lamps were listed as "1 emitter". What do the new lights look like? Here you go: A "normal" exposure, comparing LED to incandescentExposure adjusted to 1/500s, f/8, ISO 100, for a better comparisonLED door light, same exposureIncandescent door light, same exposureLED door light, "normal" exposure    In this application, I don't mind the cool white light, and overall, I'm happy with the look and performance, even though the provided specs were not even close. What do you think? Follow Michael Dunn atWelcome to Trekwood RV Parts & Supply - Your one stop shop for all your camping needs! Choose Your RV ModelAtlantic Marine: 12 Volt Lights For Your Motorhome or RV. To see our complete selection of boat lights, courtesy lights, boat navigation lights, led boat lights, visit our yacht lights section. Apeiron A3100 2.5W LED Apeiron A3120 Tri-Light Screw Mount - Custom

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