Cheap led festoon bulbs

[Adrian Jones]

As the ebay cheapos are aimed at cars, presumably they are set up for about 14V rather than 12V. Were you going above that?
I take the point about brightness variation but if someone is prepared to live with that, isn't the charging voltage scare a bit overdone?

The issue is that you don't actually know what you are purchasing.

Given the value of the average boat, it seems quite extraordinary to me that boat owners will risk purchasing LED lamps and plug them into their boats in the absence of any credible or detailed information in respect of a lamp's technical performance. If the operating voltage for a lamp is stated as 12 Volts, then it's 12 Volts and not 14 Volts. If a cheap LED lamp has resistors designed to operate at 14V the same lamp will produce very much sub-optimal light output at 12 Volts. Any assumption that a lamp is designed for 14V is in fact a guess and when guessing you take a risk.

At 14 Volts current through a resistor controlled lamp will have increased by about 50% and at 16 Volts it will have pretty much doubled. You just don't know what value of voltage the lamp has been set up for other than what the supplier states.

This is the link to a US supplier's video which Snooks refers to. I'm sure you and other boat owners will make up your own mind up if warnings about cheap resistor controlled lamps are overdone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdiAUovJ17w&feature=player_detailpage

Regards

 

[dylanwinter]

cheap bulbs

so far.... so good

D

 

[Spyro]

The issue is that you don't actually know what you are purchasing.

Given the value of the average boat, it seems quite extraordinary to me that boat owners will risk purchasing LED lamps and plug them into their boats in the absence of any credible or detailed information in respect of a lamp's technical performance. If the operating voltage for a lamp is stated as 12 Volts, then it's 12 Volts and not 14 Volts. If a cheap LED lamp has resistors designed to operate at 14V the same lamp will produce very much sub-optimal light output at 12 Volts. Any assumption that a lamp is designed for 14V is in fact a guess and when guessing you take a risk.

At 14 Volts current through a resistor controlled lamp will have increased by about 50% and at 16 Volts it will have pretty much doubled. You just don't know what value of voltage the lamp has been set up for other than what the supplier states.

This is the link to a US supplier's video which Snooks refers to. I'm sure you and other boat owners will make up your own mind up if warnings about cheap resistor controlled lamps are overdone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdiAUovJ17w&feature=player_detailpage

Regards

When I buy new filament festoon bulbs I never actually check out the detailed information about technical performance, I doubt I could find it If I wanted too
I'm purchasing a couple of festoon led bulbs rated at 1 Watt I'm sure they wont get that hot, if they do I'll chuck them away. I'll let you know.

As for the vid well they would say that they are trying to sell their own bulbs.
Would you touch a bulb with bare fingers that supposedly has molten solder on it?

 

[Davegriff]

Over-driving an LED (with high voltages) will certainly shorten its life (as it will a filament lamp). A very badly designed/build circuit board could overheat, (and would show up immediately I'd guess) but I fail see how an LED could. LEDs don't work like that I'm afraid and compared to filaments, they're basically cold running devices. Not sure what they're trying to show in the video's, but I doubt somehow we're seeing the 'whole' truth.......

Anyway, surely if these are made for the auto industry, don't they also have alternators pumping out 14+ volts???? (and how often to you run your engine with the cabin lights on anyway???)

Probably I'm wrong again - but I've used cheapos for years without problems. I guess having said that, I probably wouldn't turn 'em on and go to the pub - but I wouldn't trust filament lamps either - I've certainly seen them cause fires.....

 

[Spyro]

I can now report that after replacing my festoon bulbs with LEDs that cost a whopping 94p each they are working perfectly and pumping out plenty light. One even worked after I dropped it in a sink full of water when I was showing someone what they looked like. (who would put a sink below a light fitting )
They don't get anywhere near as hot as the original festoon bulbs and only use a fraction of the power.

This is them if anyone is interested
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2X-White-...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item1c241499d1

 

[bigwow]

I can now report that after replacing my festoon bulbs with LEDs that cost a whopping 94p each they are working perfectly and pumping out plenty light. One even worked after I dropped it in a sink full of water when I was showing someone what they looked like. (who would put a sink below a light fitting )
They don't get anywhere near as hot as the original festoon bulbs and only use a fraction of the power.

This is them if anyone is interested
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2X-White-...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item1c241499d1

Thanks for that link, I've just ordered a couple to give them a try.

 

[lw395]

I .....(who would put a sink below a light fitting )

Someone who didn't want to wash up in the dark presumably?