LED Cabin lights - be careful

[Burnham Bob]

Having followed the threads about cabin lights - including the one posted by the proprietor of Bedazzled - having just had one of the old lights fail again I decided to replace it. Its elderly and the fitting needs the corrosion cleaning off the contacts on the switch at least once a season.

So decided to buy the LED and having read the Bedazzled thread chose one of their LED cabin lights. High quality product and can't fault the service but when it arrived it had no individual on/off switch and as my boat has a switch at the switch panel for 'interior lights' it would have been on all the time. Again, when i rang them i got excellent service as they readily agreed to refund the cash. Can't fault them as a company. Went off to chandlers and roughly same light was over £50 as opposed to original £15 from Bedazzled.

Looking online, a lot of LED cabin lights advertised do not have on/off switches. So be careful if you buy online - don't assume it has an integral switch.

Now sourced a dome light with switch off eBay for £8.99 incl postage. Will let you know how I get on!

 

[Trundlebug]

I've been looking for replacement cabin lights, pref. LED for some time.

The reason I've failed to find any yet is that very few now have integral switches, meaning that if I were to fit them I would need a complete rewire of the lighting system, not a practical or desirable proposition.

I remain astonished that there is so little choice of quality, brass surround, domed cabin lights with switch that are also slim depth (less than 45mm) and surface mounted.

So many look plasticky and cheap and have no sense of quality, robustness or good design about them

I would be interested to see which lights you bought from ebay. Let us know how you get on

 

[old_salt]

I would not have thought it a big problem to fit a push on/off or rocker switch somewhere into the base of the new light fitting.
Or did it not have sufficient room to fit one?.

 

[pampas]

Been down the LED route do not like the frequency of the light, makes my eyes acke. Found on Ebay 12v dc compact fluo, to fit a bc lamp holder, now have a decent cabin light about 1.3amp consumption

 

[Burnham Bob]

yes i could have added a switch, but that would have meant an extra hole, leading the wire behind the headlining and messing around. the unit i have ordered has an integral switch and the current positive and negative wires will simply connect up and the biggest job will be two new small pilot holes for the screws to attach it.

more when i've actually got the unit installed. mind you for such a cheap price i can afford a bit of learning curve if its no good.

 

[Barry Jones]

You can often use the existing fitting and just replace the filament lamp with a LED - depending on what the lamp base is, you might have to buy an adapter.

Have just replaced some BA15S 12V bulbs with a G4 LED and adapter for about a tenner.

 

[prv]

yes i could have added a switch, but that would have meant an extra hole, leading the wire behind the headlining and messing around.

Old_Salt was suggesting adding a switch into the light, not running a wire to a separate switch elsewhere. Lots of light fittings have plenty of room for a small switch to be added, and for round toggle switches all you need to do is drill a hole.

Pete

 

[pappaecho]

I have adapted existing lights with switches, by removing the existing bulbholder, and replacing with a string of leds on ebay at 99p /strip. Works very well, started with the light in the heads, but now in each cabin, and brighter than the original 10 watt bulbs.
Note of warning - get the polarity right, or they wont work

 

[charles_reed]

Been down the LED route do not like the frequency of the light, makes my eyes acke. Found on Ebay 12v dc compact fluo, to fit a bc lamp holder, now have a decent cabin light about 1.3amp consumption

Unfortunately the reduction in light output, for a warm-white LED, makes them little, if any, more economical than a modern well-designed fluorescent.

I say this despite the claims of many of the purveyors of LEDs who usually try to get purchasers to accept bulbs of lower light output at, usually, far greater cost.

Currently I use a mixture of fluorescents and halogen bulbs and find the light welcoming and more comfortable.

However I have lots of LED torches and bike lights and can really see the value of cool white riding lights - though I await further development of dedicated LED navigation lights and more sane prices for them.

 

[Burnham Bob]

simply replacing the bulb in the old light with an LED wasn't an option. the switch is a lever that slides across and makes contact and the terminals are badly corroded and no matter how much i clean them the problem reoccurs.

as to installing a switch on the unit itself, when i spoke to the suppliers bedazzled - and this agrees with what i could see on the unit itself - they said that installing an integral switch on this unit was impossible - there's nowhere to do it.

still waiting for the ebay unit!