Switching over to LED lights

Family RV — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 01:33:40 +0000

We are getting close to our annual trip to our little piece of heaven called Wrights Lake for the Labor Day long weekend.

And with that trip it will be our longest “dry” camping trip of the year. Dry camping, for those that don’t know, means that we won’t have a water, sewer or a power hook-up. We will be totally dependent on our batteries for light and propane for heat.

Looking forward to that I began looking into ways to limit the draw on the batteries so we don’t have to worry about them going dead during our trip.

Incandescent and LED side-by-side

One way to save on power is by switching out all the light bulbs in the trailer to LED lights. LEDs are a great way to reduce the use of battery power while still enjoying a brightly lit room.

Using LEDs can save almost 85% in juice. An LED bulb draws an 1/8th of the power an incandescent bulb. But they can produce the same amount of light and don’t generate any heat. What really swayed me towards LEDs (in part) was this cool chart on comparing LEDs to incandescents and compact fluorescents (CFLs). Looking at that chart you can see the environmental advantages as well as the financial.

What was important to me was that by using LED bulbs I would enjoy all the benefits without any downside. So that meant I first needed to test an LED bulb that I thought would replace the existing incandescent while having the same brightness and general color temperature.

I found an LED bulb that, in my tests, seem to generate an equivalent or better brightness of the incandescent but only drew 3.24 watts compared to 23 watts for the equivalent incandescent. That is huge!

LED on left - Incandescent on right

But incandescent bulbs have a more yellow color temp. (that people are used to) compared to LED bulbs. Most LED bulbs will look closer to day light color temps.

It can take a little getting used to, but the day light color temp. can actually be an advantage because the light seem brighter than the yellow incandescent color.

So the LED bulb I bought to switch-out most of my incandescents is the Ming’s Mark 1156/1141 330 Lumen LED bulb. It is only $16.98 and available on dyersonline.com

(The bulbs available on Dyers are the “warm white” version and will be closer to an incandescent than what is pictured above.)

This post via the: Family RV Fun blog. Where you can get tips, tricks and valuable info on family RV travel.

Switching over to LED lights

Wrights Lake: It was a beautiful week

Family RV — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:04:30 +0000

The kids are loving life at Wrights Lake

Well we just got back from Wrights Lake and boy did we have a good time.

If you don’t know where it is, Wrights Lake is located 30 minutes South of Lake Tahoe in the Eldorado National Forrest. The lake looks up at the majestic rocky peaks of the Sierra Nevada and Desolation Wilderness.

We left early Monday morning from our home in San Jose and were up at the lake by 2pm.

The road coming in to the Wrights Lake Campground

When we saw the Wrights Lake campground sign and then caught a glimpse of the lake, we were beside ourselves to find our camp site and get out on the lake.

This is the place where we caught the RV bug last summer when we tent camped here. We thought, wow this is great but sleeping in a tent and cooking over the campfire is just ok. So one month later we bought our Thor Cal travel trailer and yes the rest is history and being chronicled in this blog.

So we spent a full week at Wrights Lake this year, six nights and seven very full days coming home late Sunday evening. We filled our days canoeing on the lake, playing on the beach and trying our luck at fishing up the filler stream for the lake (no we didn’t catch any fish, but we saw a lot of them). Wrights Lake is a totally non-power boat lake. You can only have canoes, kayaks and sail boats on the lake. So this means the type of people who come to the lake are the more “environmental” types and also the campground is quieter in the evening. If you have a power boat I recommend you go to Icehouse reservoir which is on the road to Wrights Lake (about 10 miles below the lake).

The family canoeing on Wrights Lake

We also met a lot of friendly people. And many of them with children the same age as our kids. Our last night we were invited to dinner with a family who were having a sort of family reunion. The grandfather has been going to Wrights Lake since the 1940s!

Camping Recommendations for Wrights Lake
If you are passing through Placerville on your way to the lake (and your a Safeway shopper), I highly recommend you stop at the Palcerville Safeway (at the Missouri Flats off-ramp). Buy your food there and then fill-up at the Safeway gas station. You can save up to 60 cents a gallon.

Check-in at the campground isn’t until 2pm, so plan a late afternoon arrival.

There are two campgrounds. The one closest to the lake is for tent campers only (sites 1-19). The campground for sites 20 -68 inlcude spaces for RV camping (though no power or water hookup. It’s dry camping only).

One note about water: It isn’t allowed to hook a hose up to the facet to fill your water tank. So bring a large water bucket to fill you tank (I bought a six gallon jug for future trips).

The best spaces for RVs are on the side of the campground of sites 38 – 68 . The campground road is wider and easier to maneuver.

The picture on the right is of a tree on the side of the campground with the narrow road. As you can see many an RV has made its mark.

So we had a great time and will be back next year. And next year we plan to do some hiking up in the hills above the lake. There are many small alpine lakes nestled up among the granite cliffs.

Reservation Information
- CALL 1-877-444-6777, four days to six months in
advance of your first night’s stay.
- WEBSITE: www.Recreation.gov

The campground is generally open between late June and mid-October. These dates are affected by snow conditions. The campground is at about 7,000’ elevation.

Location: 23 miles east of Placerville on Highway 50, 11 miles north on Ice House Road (Forest Road 3), 9 miles east on Forest Road 32 (Wrights Lake Tie Road), and 2 miles north on Forest Road 4 (Wrights Lake Rd).

This post via the: Family RV Fun blog. Where you can get tips, tricks and valuable info on family RV travel.

Wrights Lake: It was a beautiful week

Family RV Fun » dry camping

Switching over to LED lights

Wrights Lake: It was a beautiful week