Converting to LED ...

All the lights on my 1981 Sadler are now LED, last to be changed was the masthead, which is now a tri/all round white combi, the de knight and steaming light were changed to LED a couple of years ago, (steaming light obviously more a matter of convenience than power consumption), the secondary pulpit level nav lights now all have LED bulbs, the cabin lights ad already been changed to LED by the previous owner.
 
SailingDog said:
If a lamp fails then LED a natural replacement, replacing 20+ bulbs for the battery saving is questionable unless you are undertaking extended open water passages, Marina hopping in day light hours doesn't make economic sense IMO.
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Some of us do quite long passages far from shore power.
 
SailingDog said:
If a lamp fails then LED a natural replacement, replacing 20+ bulbs for the battery saving is questionable unless you are undertaking extended open water passages, Marina hopping in day light hours doesn't make economic sense IMO.
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For me ... the cruises in Swedish Archipelago - the night spots are often just tied to trees bow in. So only battery charging is when engine is running. Typical cruise for me is about 10 days .... any saving on battery use is really appreciated. Of course when boat was Solent based - that was a different game altogether.
 
Moodysailor said:
This certainly isn't the cheapest thing I've ever bought, but my gosh is it useful. Works as a light for our dinghy, anchor light, area light and a battery backup emergency nav light. It's really small, takes rechargeable or conventional batteries. The med setting is fine for most anchorages, but with the rechargeable fitted, there should be enough burn time to last through the night on all but the bleakest days...

Having bought one, I'd happily recommend to others.

Fenix CL09
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I have one of those camping emergency lights that looks like a mini hurricane lamp. Each press of the button changes the light from Full on white ... to flashing red warning ... to slow flash white ... can run on 3 D cells or be powered by adaptor. Cost me about 10 euros in local DIY shop ...
 
Refueler said:
I have one of those camping emergency lights that looks like a mini hurricane lamp. Each press of the button changes the light from Full on white ... to flashing red warning ... to slow flash white ... can run on 3 D cells or be powered by adaptor. Cost me about 10 euros in local DIY shop ...
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I did look at something similar but couldn't find anything that was waterproof (therefore not meeting my needs for an anchor light).

Is yours waterproof? If so, could you chuck up a brand name or link as it's a lot cheaper than what I ended up buying.

I still like my Fenix light and am going to purchase a couple of their headtorches so I can use the same batteries. It's a high-quality piece of kit, so these lights will be for when we need something that "just works". I have a few cheaper torches hanging around.
 
Moodysailor said:
I did look at something similar but couldn't find anything that was waterproof (therefore not meeting my needs for an anchor light).

Is yours waterproof? If so, could you chuck up a brand name or link as it's a lot cheaper than what I ended up buying.

I still like my Fenix light and am going to purchase a couple of their headtorches so I can use the same batteries. It's a high-quality piece of kit, so these lights will be for when we need something that "just works". I have a few cheaper torches hanging around.
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It was some years ago I bought it ... I do see them again in the local shop but its Latvia - not UK. The usual brand here is BESK .. its like the B&Q items for here.
This is the lamp :

1Kcc1IDm.jpg


and another I have which has 24 LED's in a ring ... designed as a low level light to hang in a tent .... gives enough light for sitting out in cockpit with friends and Pina Colada's !!

L4Kfm7Lm.jpg


I have to admit that I am one who wanders around supermarkets / DIY stores imagining what I can do with gear I see ... when it comes to the camping shelves - there are some gems .....
My 2 berth weekender has no mattresses etc. So a couple of roll up Gym Mats used in tents. Pillows ? Inflatable camping pillows .....
 
Refueler said:
It was some years ago I bought it ... I do see them again in the local shop but its Latvia - not UK. The usual brand here is BESK .. its like the B&Q items for here.
This is the lamp :

1Kcc1IDm.jpg


and another I have which has 24 LED's in a ring ... designed as a low level light to hang in a tent .... gives enough light for sitting out in cockpit with friends and Pina Colada's !!

L4Kfm7Lm.jpg


I have to admit that I am one who wanders around supermarkets / DIY stores imagining what I can do with gear I see ... when it comes to the camping shelves - there are some gems .....
My 2 berth weekender has no mattresses etc. So a couple of roll up Gym Mats used in tents. Pillows ? Inflatable camping pillows .....
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I fully applaud your ingenuity - it strikes the right chord with me ;) (y)
 
On my latest boat (19') I had two interior lights in the cabin, one in the heads, tricolour, low level port and starboard and sternlight. All were incandescents.
I swapped the interior ones to led warm white but reduced the number of lamps to one instead of 2 x10w, the tricolour has a single ended led I found a warm white gives acceptable colours but not spot on. The port, starboard and stern I've left as incandescent for now as they are only used when the engine is running, I'll change them all when the first one packs up.
 
Speaking of LEDs these LED strips are brilliant. DC12V 1M 5M SMD 5050 RGB white Waterproof 300 LED Flexible Tape Strip Light | eBay adhesive not so good but you can glue them. At home a particularly useful spot is for a pantry cupboard. It has an ordinary sized door to an area of shelves. it originally had a light globe in the roof. totally useless. I attached these strips down the inside of each side door frame floor to top. I connected a 240v to 12v converter this kind of thing LED Driver AC 120V/240V to DC 12V Transformer Power Adapter Home Converter 1W-3W 642610513107 | eBay
Works brilliantly with light into the lowest shelves.
There must be similar cupboards in boats that could benefit by this kind of light. Perhaps a microswitch on the door for auto lighting.
5Pcs Micro Limit Switch Long Lever Arm Subminiature SPDT Snap Action_pf | eBay ol'will
 
I'm really glad to see so many posts in the spirit of Practical Boat Ownership ... it looked over time if it was a thing of the past.

Excellent and the hope is that others will read and maybe use some of the ideas for their own boats ...
 
I have added some LEDs to my boat on the interior as lighting when stopped is a battery gobbler. The biggest lighting consumer on my boat is the deck working light, so what I am looking for is a mast mounted deck working light with LEDs.
 
Rock Dodger said:
I have added some LEDs to my boat on the interior as lighting when stopped is a battery gobbler. The biggest lighting consumer on my boat is the deck working light, so what I am looking for is a mast mounted deck working light with LEDs.
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Working light .... I have a 'Motorcycle' LED Driving lamp on my small mobo .. it gives a very good spread light to show all ahead of me ... it could easily be used for spreader light or as a foredeck flood.

motorcycle led driving lamp | eBay

Scroll through that lot ...
 
Rock Dodger said:
I have added some LEDs to my boat on the interior as lighting when stopped is a battery gobbler. The biggest lighting consumer on my boat is the deck working light, so what I am looking for is a mast mounted deck working light with LEDs.
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I spent a wonderful 3hrs up the mast on Saturday getting a great tan & managing to squeeze in some work whilst I was there. As well as changing out the rest of the nav bulbs for LED, on the list was the deck light to checkout as it wasn't working.

Turned out is was a PAR-36 sealed beam bulb. A bit of searching found LED replacements at Furneax Ridall - original ones were 50W, new ones 8W. That's one hell of a power saving.

It was a bit of an investment, but we now have 100% LED bulbs in all our navigation lights (and will soon have in deck light too). In total we have reduced our power consumption by 216.5 Watts. We used boatlamps.com for the nav bulbs
 
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