Dimmable G4 led lamps

[SteveDH]

Hi All,

The lighting system on our boat fades the lights up as they're switched on, fades them down (to nothing) as they're switched off, and allows the brightness to be set when on.

The various downlights are all still fitted with Halogen 10W G4 lamps because I've read that it's really difficult to find warm white LED equivalents that dim nicely.

Has anyone found any good quality LED G4 equivalents that dim well?

TIA

Steve

 

[eilerts]

Got the impression that the problem is the dimmer, that halogen is dimmed by controlling the voltage while LED is dimmed by controlling the current. Is that right?

 

[lustyd]

I just measured the difference in power on mine and the 2W LED aren’t so significantly lower in real word use than the 5W halogen that I’d make the effort in your situation. They do use less power, but you’re probably talking an extra hour on a week long cruise. If you like the dimming I’d just stick with halogens and ask on the forum for any unused spares as there are probably hundreds being thrown out.

 

[TernVI]

Old, simple 12V leds just had some LEDs and a resistor to control the current.
Then they added a bridge rectifier so they went either way around or worked on 12V AC.
Now, to be a bit more efficient, they contain an electronic constant current circuit, so maintain the same brightness if the 12V fluctuates. That's good, if you don't want them to have short lives when the boat is charging at 14.5V, but makes them non-dimmable.
You have to buy the right ones for what you want to do.