I got started in LED lighting nearly five and a half years ago when I went looking for a way to help my batteries survive on cloudy days when my solar system could not keep up with the burn rate of the incandescent lights in my fifth-wheel. We were camped on the desert in Quartzsite at the time, so I went into the Big Tent for ideas on how to build some useful LED lights.
In 2006 there were a few LED lights that could connect with the fixtures in an RV, but their quality was poor, they failed quickly, and the light produced was not sufficient to be useful. The best being offered were built using LEDs designed for flashlights. In some cases they required direct wiring into the electrical system of the RV.
One booth at Q that I walked into had LEDs all over the place. Flashlights, dog collars, antennas, badges, beacons, and some of the strangest looking jim-kracky items you could imagine. I saw nothing that looked like it solved my problem, and I was about to leave. Then on the back table I saw a device that looked similar to an incandescent light from my RV.
Its form-factor was much like the 1141 bulb in my patio light, with a small metal base with two ears and a single contact. Sticking out the top of the metal can was a post surrounded with nine bare semiconductor chips, each a pale yellow color and about 3mm square. I had retired from a computer board manufacturer associated with Silicon Valley and knew the value of surface mount devices.
I asked the salesman, "Is that a light? Does it work?"
"Sure, let me show you." He brought over a couple of leads from a nearby 12v battery and touched them to the case and bottom contact. The device lit up brighter than my 1141. It was awesome.
"How much does that one cost?"
"This is the prototype. If there is enough interest they could sell for about $35, but they will last for 100,000 hours. And they only draw about 20% of the amps used by the incandescent. But you should talk to Kelly. He is the one who designed it."
I met Kelly, the owner of Neutek in Mesa, AZ, and that evening we designed a replacement for the 921 bulbs used in the ceiling fixtures of my rig. I agreed to buy eleven of them. After a bit more talk, I agreed to sell his products at rallies on the west coast. That was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between PrudentRVer.com and Neutek. We collaborated on the design of other LED solutions for RVs, and the Far East has "knocked off" our designs several times. I am now the stocking distributor for Neutek.
The reason for this history lesson is that I just realized it has only been five and a half years from the start of this "small segment of industry." It has changed so much, and there are so many more changes coming.
First, people commented on the high cost of LEDs, and yet they bought them to save on power and reduce heat in their rig. They could see the advantage, and they appreciated our policy of always backing up our product for its full life. Now, five and a half years later, the price has dropped over 50%. It is still a bit expensive, but people are replacing ALL the incandescents in their RVs, not just one or two. For some rigs this is 25 or more bulbs and the cost can be less than $400.
One of the big changes PrudentRVer.com in concerned with is the move to fully regulated light stripes, our TL2R. Each inch of the strip provides 40 lumens of natural white light (480 lumens per foot) and each inch is protected by a set of regulators that protect against the vagaries of voltage fluctuations found in most RVs (like when you turn on the generator, or the solar panels kick in). This is part of Neutek's ThinLUX linear lighting product set. We have solutions for RVs, boats, and domestic homes.
Another big change is the coming introduction of really nice 120v AC "bulbs" to go into the existing domestic home fixtures. We are not selling these, but we do strongly recommend them. They are a major step beyond incandescents, and so much better than the squirrel-tailed CFLs (that are actually a hazardous waste).
The result of these changes will be the ubiquitous replacement of incandescents and fluorescents with LEDs. It seems to be taking a long time, but then five and a half years ago, we were starting from nearly zero, and look how far we have come.
Go green. Go LEDs.
Sam Penny, the Prudent RVer
ya, i also want to know about the future of led tubes are they reliable for long time or not??
Posted by: led tubes | August 03, 2011 at 09:31 PM