Halogen bulbs

[mick]

I'm thinking of using halogen bulbs in my cabin lights. a) Are they worth the extra cost? and b) Are they a bigger drain on the battery than ordinary bulbs?

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[Colin_S]

If you are concerned with power consumption, take a look at LED units. They draw significantly less power v's halogen, tungsten, etc for similar light output. They are still quite expensive but are getting cheaper as they become more commonplace. They also have a vastly superior bulb life.
B&Q already do a fair range. I was looking at them just the other day, they had some nice small white ones to light up a staicase.

Found this on a quick search, they stock some LED units including recessed nav lights. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.indexmarine.co.uk/pages/lights.recessed.htm>http://www.indexmarine.co.uk/pages/lights.recessed.htm</A>

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[oldharry]

Halogen type bulbs are much brighter, so that a typical halogen bulb is lower power than its equivalent normal filament bulb, giving a noticeable power saving for a given level of light. But they have disadvantages: cost, they run hotter so may damage fittings not designed for them, and they are said to burst if the glass envelope gets dirty (never yet had it happen though!). Fittings should therefore have a safety glass fitted. I have seen in the local caravan shop Halogen adapted bulbs, which substitute standard tungstens: these are halogen bulbs inside a standard sized glass, which is evacuated to reduce heat transfer, and also provides the safety shield, and fit in standard tungsten type fittings. Not very much more expensive than ordinary Halogens either!

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[snowleopard]

halogen bulbs lose a lot of their output if you get fingerprint grease on them as it etches the glass.

the halogen type with a metal bayonet cap should not be installed in an upright position as damp can run down into the cap and corrode the leads- i lost several last winter that way!

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[jerryat]

Hi mick!

Yes, as has been mentioned, halogen use fewer amps. I changed my 'standard' bulbs to halogen about two years ago, but came up with the problem of how to fit two pronged halogen bulbs into bayonet light fittings! We were in St Maarten in the Caribbean and discovered that West Marine did a neat little bayonet fitting that plugged into the existing light fitting, and allowed a halogen to plug into it. Don't know if you can get them here or if you have a similar problem.

Now of course, I've just changed all the interior lights as part of the refit, and the new ones take halogen directly!!

Cheers

Jerry

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[William_H]

The 1w2v halogen light globes used in homes for down lights are very efficient with a built in reflector the 20 watt size is ideal get the one with glass over the front, however they do get hot . An easy mounting connection system is to use those plastic electrical joining strips cut the plastic away and you find a tube of brass or steel with a screw set in each end. these can clamp onto the bulb pins then onto two pieces of stiff wire clamped down or some custom bent pieces of brass. If you mount the bulb by the connection pins you can bend the mounting wires to direct the light. Cut a hole in the facia or existing light cover to clear the bulb. With a bit of fiddling you should be able to make a reasonable looking very bright cabin light. regards will

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[maxi]

Buy them from an electrical factor - a whole packet will probably cost less than one bulb from a swindlery.

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[studgies]

We got ours from Ikea, light fittings and all, can either be surface mounted or recessed, gost all of £6 per pair!

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[bedouin]

That highlights an interesting thing about halogen bulbs...

All (non inductive) electrical loads are 100% efficient in that all the energy put in comes out in one form or another. In the case of lights that can be light or heat. So for a halogen bulb to use less power while still putting out more light and more heat than a tungsten filament bulb seems a bit contradictory. Where in the spectrum is the conventional bulb putting out the extra energy?

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[Keith]

Be aware that if you have a smart regulator fitted on your alternator that there is a chance that the bulbs life will be shortened, especially if lights are on with the engine running its apparently all to do with the alternator chucking out 14+ volts into a twelve volt bulb.................keith

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[charles_reed]

I started replacing all my lights with halogen ones about 5 years ago.

despite having a smart controller on my alternator, I only had to replace my first bulb earlier this year after about 800 hours.

Compared to a conventional tungsten bulb, you get about x5 the amount of light for the same wattage (I use 10 watt and 5 watt) and x3 the life.

Another poster has confused halogen with LED lights - LED life is severely curtailed if the voltage is higher than that for which they are rated - halogen bulbs are comparitively tough, but do use considerably more power than an LED.

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[Keith]

sorry charles, i know of boats that have binned there halogens for the reason i gave.........keith

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[bedouin]

But because of the low current draw and non-linear characteristics of LEDs it is a simple matter to allow an LED set up to operate across a range of voltages using a simple resistor (and a Zener if you like).

In fact I think the better LED installations use a simple driver circuit to provide a high frequency pulsed waveform rather than DC and it is trivial to include a regulated supply in that case.

It is much harder to achieve the same protection with Halogen.

That said I am not sure that LEDs are yet good enough for main cabin lighting, but I think it will only be a year or so before they are...

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[rex]

I was worried about being over 12volts but I have yet to replace a halogen bulb and have an Adverc and shore charger on most of the time. I used normal domestic fittings.

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