fitting cabin led lights with problems, help please

S

spilt-my-tea

Member
Joined
1 Feb 2013
Messages
24
Location
Isle of Skye
Visit site
Greetings All
I'm fitting new LED lights in my cabin (8m offshore with basic setup, two batteries charged by engine with a wind charger coming)
So I bought a cabin light from Bedazzled (G4 CAB10) 2W and 166ma current draw
I removed the fluorescent single tube fitting and attached the led light fitting, I couldn't see any indication of a + or - on the wires of the led fitting so assumed it doesn't matter (it's becoming clearer now huh) so I rigged it up and turned on the main power.....massive power drain and an odd smell so shut down immediately, touched the wires from the light fitting, they're fine, touched the wires coming out of the cabin wall and I nearly put the kettle on em' they were so hot.
disconnected the light fitting and backed slowly away, then put the kettle back on the stove and had a cuppa (with the fire extinguisher very close by)

Just a word about Bedazzled, not their fault at all and I'm content to absorb the cost of my idiocy, I claim total responsability for being a numpty and I'm in communication with them to purchase the right product but I can't expect them to explain everything plus they're busy chaps so where did I go wrong?

or rather what is it that I don't understand?
Any info from the scary amount of informed and terribly clever folk on YBW would be much appreciated as I love a BBQ as much as the next guy, just rather have one on my boat rather than it being my boat.

Kind Regards, the guy who rows his dinghy with a garden rake
 
Follow up....Each of the cabin lights have an individual on/off switch on their housing and can be turned on after turning on the main power switch, there is no dedicated switch on the fuseboard for them (unlike everything else, radio, nav lights, log etc) is this normal, or rather is this a safe setup?
 
Well I am no expert but if your cabin lights run direct from the battery with no fuse protection, either inline or via the switch panel, then it sounds like somehow you shorted your lines and it never got as far as powering the light. Those lights are internally protected by a fuse.

Just trying to think how you could have done that though :-).

Did it only happen when you switched the light button on, or the when you turned on the boat battery? Have you tried the lights on a bench?
 
TonyBuckley, Oddly enough the light was working (very brightly too), but I switched it off after noticing the massive power drain but the wires continued to heat up so i shut it all down.
I don't have a bench to test this stuff out on, I live on board. But I'm thinking of re-wiring the cabin lights to the fusebox, it won't be a work of art but the boat should safe....and me too.
 
Liveaboard? You are sure that circuit is 12v DC and not mains <gulp> lol. What was the fluoro tube rated at?

I'm sorry, I don't know. But a bit of kit only draws the current it needs, so it must be either shorting somewhere or its a faulty light.

Others will know better.
 
TonyBuckley, I'm on a swinging mooring 6/700 yards from shore and you should see my extension cable!....I've since learnt, thanks to the answers I've recieved that my cabin lights are not fused, it never occured to me that I didn't have to flick a switch on the fuseboard to turn on my indoor lights....like I have to do with absolutely everything else, so I'm going to re-wire the cabin lights to the fuse-box, fit some in-line switch's and bobs my uncle.

So many thanks for all the answers, they've led to me being better educated and with a safer boat

Many thanks and kind regards, mark
 
Sounds like a numpty wired your boat and forgot to fit fuses in the cabin light circuit! I d sort this first before
playing around. What other circuits are not correctly fused. You certainly did something spectacular as the Bedazzled
Light is internally fused and this fuse seems to have escaped :) Did you short the two feed wires somehow?



spilt-my-tea said:
Greetings All
I'm fitting new LED lights in my cabin (8m offshore with basic setup, two batteries charged by engine with a wind charger coming)
So I bought a cabin light from Bedazzled (G4 CAB10) 2W and 166ma current draw
I removed the fluorescent single tube fitting and attached the led light fitting, I couldn't see any indication of a + or - on the wires of the led fitting so assumed it doesn't matter (it's becoming clearer now huh) so I rigged it up and turned on the main power.....massive power drain and an odd smell so shut down immediately, touched the wires from the light fitting, they're fine, touched the wires coming out of the cabin wall and I nearly put the kettle on em' they were so hot.
disconnected the light fitting and backed slowly away, then put the kettle back on the stove and had a cuppa (with the fire extinguisher very close by)

Just a word about Bedazzled, not their fault at all and I'm content to absorb the cost of my idiocy, I claim total responsability for being a numpty and I'm in communication with them to purchase the right product but I can't expect them to explain everything plus they're busy chaps so where did I go wrong?

or rather what is it that I don't understand?
Any info from the scary amount of informed and terribly clever folk on YBW would be much appreciated as I love a BBQ as much as the next guy, just rather have one on my boat rather than it being my boat.

Kind Regards, the guy who rows his dinghy with a garden rake
Click to expand...
 
It sounds like feed wires shorting. He says that it didn't stop even when the light was switched off which suggests that the short was before the light. Definately need some circuit protection. I wired everything myself through a switch board with protection and with oversized tinned wire. All my lights are LED so very low consumption but the way I looked at it is that you must design the system for every eventuality. If someone fits an incandescent bult at the top of my mast instead of the LED anchor light, the cable will survive. It is not nice when the cable turns red hot and melts the protective cover. The wiring I got from melin (I think) has a quenching coating to prevent fire.
 
If your wires glow red, you've got the wrong fuse or breaker fitted.
If your cables get warm and started smelling, you may well have damaged the insulation, the wires need to be checked / replaced.

I've come across many installations where LED lamps are wired in 1mm cable or less, this is OK, providing that the 'accessory fuse' is sized accordingly. If you intend on relying on the 20 or 30A board breaker, have the fire extinguisher ready for when the cable burns out.

The fuse / breaker is there to protect the wiring in the event of a short circuit, if your wiring is undersized then it becomes the fuse :rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top