LED Cabin Lights

iangrant

iangrant

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Fitted a few now and as people have said the light is prety white, this said the current draw is next to nought.

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Bought them from http://www.furneauxriddall.com/shop/acatalog/Special_LED_Bulb.html who gave me a 10% discount over the counter without even asking!

Great shop very helpful people.
Ian
 
How white is white? I fitted some leds last year and they are pretty blue... cold effect. I have tried some "warm" variety that are a little better, but a whole load more expensive.

What are yours like?
 
These ones look very cheap - £4 each:

g4LED.jpg


Doesn't say whether they are voltage regulated as I know this caused a lot of failures in the early batches - ideally say 10v - 15v to allow for low batteries and boost charges.

The Ultraled ones look good:

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but are much more expensive. Have found the same ones (or extremely simalar) on ebay for £9 vs £14 on Ultraled - but Ultraled offer a 2 year warranty

Definately heard the warm ones are better - but reflected in the cost. For our main cabin we have 4 halogen spots in the saloon, 1 at chart table and 1 at galley - thats 6 @ £14 each! Don't think I will bother with the forecabin / heads as they won't be on for very long. May put a couple in the aft cabin - though haven't dismanteld the fittings to see what type of bulbs they need.

Jonny
 
if there is any cahnce of getting water near those integrated circuits you investment will very rapidly corrode. And condensation trickling down my lights has already taken its toll.
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re-corrosion: Yup, salt water will leave you with a furry green mess.
If they come apart easily then a coat of spray varnish (ideally PCB lacquer from someone like Maplins or come to think of it, probably any old car paint) on both sides of the circuit board should do you nicely as a substitute for the conformal coat the manufacturers should have specified if they really cared...
Arg, yes, mask off the connectors, lenses and anything else that looks like it shouldn't be painted first...!

Did this to the car stereo I fitted on mine last year - I'll let you know in 10 years whether it worked...
 
G4 is the key - I took out the bulbs and replaced them with the led's - had to take the glass out but the led's look ok without

Ian
 
We have replaced the bulbs on my brother's boat with the LED equivalent in the original fittings and they work fine - I think that the original bulbs were what is called a festoon bulb - cylindrical with a cap at each end. Once the frosted cover is back in place you would not know that they had been changed except that they seem brighter.
 
G4 replacements are designed to work as halogen bulb replacements:

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However, our light fittings are quite small so ones with lots of LED's in (like Ian's first post) wouldn't fit.

You can get lots of variants:

Festoon:
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Bayonette:
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www.ultraleds.co.uk has a good selection (though I have no experience of them or their products!!!!)

Jonny
 
Ian - I find the LED light is intensly bright to look at, but it seems that even with the perceived brightess to the eye, the actual illumination capabilities are poor.

The good old strip light is apparently just as efficient, and gives a good light in comparison.
 
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The good old strip light is apparently just as efficient, and gives a good light in comparison.

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Trouble with fluorescent lights is that the circuitry inside really makes listening to Longwave radio 4 difficult as the R4 gets drowned by a howling whistling noise. Do LED's cause this radio interference?
 
Chris - you're right but weighed off against the power consumption i'm happy to live with it.

With all the lights on the current draw was over 5 amps with to old halogen bulbs. Now with the LED's it's less than one amp.

Havn't done the nav lights yet, not sure it's worth it, the biggest draw is when steaming when of course, the engines on anyway!

Ian
 
[ QUOTE ]
We have replaced the bulbs on my brother's boat with the LED equivalent in the original fittings and they work fine - I think that the original bulbs were what is called a festoon bulb - cylindrical with a cap at each end. Once the frosted cover is back in place you would not know that they had been changed except that they seem brighter.

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Peter - where did you get the festoon fittings from? I have 2 10w filaments in each lamp - 8-10 lamps in all, so might be useful to replacea few to test.
 
I understood that the lumens of the strip light had a better energy to lumens conversion than the LED - there was an article in PBO last year.

However, as the strip lights are unsightly for main cabin lights, I was going to try some replacement festoons - but I have not found any yet on the web. Any ideas?
 
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