Dimmable LED bulbs to fit blow molds and inflatables

[beeiilll]

Hey all,

I am not on here much now since selling my house and not having much of a display (living on a 55MPH highway with blind spots near each side).

I have a couple of inflatables up and a couple of blow molds at the house entrance this year. I wanted to see what people are using now for dimmable C7 candelabra base bulbs for their molds and inflatables? I bought a couple different ones but they are too large in diameter for the 1" hole in a blow mold or else too bright (approx. 60 watt) output!  😳  I just want to get a better light output for these things - not blind anyone! 😁

So do any of you have a good link for LED bulbs that will work? Something with around 20 watt output (4 or 6 watt LED?) would be the best I think?  And they "should" fit into a blow mold without having to change the hole size and be dimmable to work with LOR!  I can use some of my controllers in stand-alone mode to run simple animations for a bit of "show" for the people passing by! 

Sure would beat buying some only to find they don't fit, are too bright, or won't dim! Getting close now and would like to get some soon if possible.

Thanks and hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season!

Bill

[beeiilll]

On further digging, it looks like a 2 watt LED bulb would be close to a 25 watt incandescent one so that would be close to what I am looking for, please.

I have over 170 blow molds and a dozen inflatables that I will eventually want to change over to LED so that is my big reason for trying to find some.  Some of my molds have 3 C7 bulbs each so I can easily use over 300 of a C7 style LED bulb!

[TheDucks]

Can you tolerate Longer bulbs?  e12 tubular size but the cost

BUT

Have you considered converting to Low Voltage (and use a CMB24).?

I bought a 5M roll of White (3500deg) LED strips and 1/2" PVC pipe (bare pipe is 5/8"dia).  I cut the strips into 1 segment lengths , glued them to 4  sides of slightly longer pieces of the PVC, soldered power jumpers between 3 of them, and a longer Power FEED.  I replaced the C7 sockets commonly found in Stake lights, Pumpkins...  Each bulb (or set) is powered from a CMB24 channel (you have 24)

OR use Dumb RGB strips where desired (I made my pumpkins have varied colored candle action)

[rcktpwrd]

I made small stands out of 1/2" pvc pipe, with a vertical piece about the height of the blowmold. Then we wrapped a strand of led lights around the pipe. Now the entire blowmold is lighted and has a more sturdy base/stand. 

 

single c6

strand of led

 

We also have 5 blowmold candles done like this and they look better, I think there are too many lights in the smaller soldiers, although they do look better in person, the camera overblows the brightness.

Edited December 7, 2020 by rcktpwrd

[rcktpwrd]

here is a pvc stand I made for a small Santa:

[beeiilll]

Well I found a couple of sources so far for C7 bulbs.  I ordered some from each one to see how they look and work as well as hold up.

I got some from Christmas Light Source and from Christmas Lights, Etc..  Now I just have to wait and see how they work.  I will be looking through AliExpress after the holidays since I need over 300 of these bulbs!

Christmas Lights, Etc. was a bit cheaper than Light Source but still cost $1.19 per bulb so not cheap by any means.

Just wanted to give these sources for anyone who is also looking for C7 bulbs in a pure white color and are dimmable, although each source does offer the bulbs in the warm white color range as well.

Edited December 8, 2020 by beeiilll
added URL's

[beeiilll]

I can't seem to post any pictures o here so I have the whole post with photos over on the DIY Forum if you care to see it!  The eBay link bulb is the best so far!

http://doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showthread.php?55598-LED-bulbs-for-blowmolds-and-inflatables

 

With the exception of the incandescent bulb, all other bulbs are LED, C7-E12 Candelabra Base, Dimmable except for the last mold on the right which has an LED bulb that is NOT dimmable.

 

From left to right the C7 bulbs are as follows:

 

These are original smooth incandescent C7 bulb from 1000 bulbs:

https://www.1000bulbs.com/search?breadcrumbs[0]=christmas-lights&breadcrumbs[1]=christmas-best-sellers&facet.multiselect=true&page=1&q=*&rows=15&son=0&sort=price+asc&start=0&filter=(category:"12818")&filter=(a_base_type_t_fq:"Candelabra (E12)")

 

 

2nd mold has C7 LED bulb from Christmas Lights Online. Com:

This is a faceted bulb. This supplier has changed to a newer bulb with more LEDs inside of it. These are some that I purchased last year. I suspect that the newer ones are brighter than this.

https://www.christmas-lights-online.com/C7-SMD-Faceted-Transparent-LED-Bulbs-Packs-of-25/productinfo/LC7SMD-FA/WHITE/

 

3^rd mold has a bulb from Christmas Light Source. Com:

This is a smooth bulb.

The base on this bulb is somewhat different from a standard C7 bulb and required me to tinker with the socket to get it to make good contact. Can’t say that I would recommend this bulb unless you are confident with tinkering to make them work which is a shame since they are nice and bright!

https://www.christmas-light-source.com/Pure-White-C7-LED-Smooth-Christmas-Light-Bulb_p_2362.html

 

4^th mold is from Christmas Lights Etc. com:

This is a faceted bulb.

https://www.christmaslightsetc.com/p/C7--Cool-White-OptiCore-LED-Replacement-Bulbs-13594.htm#61352

 

5^th mold is an eBay one that is a “COB” style:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-E12-Candelabra-C7-64-3014-SMD-LED-Light-Lamp-Bulb-Fit-PQ1500S-White-110V/192490069868?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

 

6th mold has a LOHAS LED 15W smooth bulb from Amazon and is NOT dimmable.

I use these bulbs for soldier blow molds and molds that are static and not on any controller. They produce a brighter light than the standard C7 LED bulbs.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HEY2T1C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1