Led cabin lights

[santelmo]

I am currently looking at the options for upgrading my cabin lights throughout the boat and am keen to go for leds to replace the old flourecent tubes. I want to be able to use the existing wiring. I know that I should go to a specialist marine supplier but if there is a more cost effective alternative that others have found I would like to know about it. For instance how about the under cupboard kitchen type that comes with a mains plug/converter, would that work if I was to cut off the plug and connect directly into the 12v DC circuit? Or would there be a voltage fluctuation issue? I would want some dome type, some strips and I have also considered those long strips that you can cut to size. The experience of others that have done this would be useful to me. Thanks in advance.

 

[Yngmar]

You can shop for car/caravan/boat lamps. These will have DC-DC converters inside that avoid flickering in case of voltage fluctuations and extend lifetime, which is shortened when unregulated 12V LEDs are supplied with the 14+ Volts of a charging battery bank. Dream Lighting has a selection of good quality LED lamps, many of which are available at reasonable prices on Amazon.

That said, the lifetime of a unstabilized 12V LED (e.g. on a strip, which you can buy on a 5m roll m of for around £15) is quite reasonable. Ours are a couple years old now and show no sign of deterioration yet. You can buy plastic or aluminum extrusions to glue these in and make them look stylish. This is usually cheaper and more flexible than buying AC fittings and cutting off the power supply. You'll need to research a bit about what type of LEDs have the desired power efficiency, brightness and come in the colour temperature you want (typically warm white for most interior spaces, day white for galley/heads - at least that's how we liked it).

We also converted some of our existing CFL fixtures by gutting the electronics, replacing the on/off switch with an on/off/on one and inserting red and white LED strips so we can switch between red and white. This was dirt cheap and avoided having to drill any new mounting holes in the boat at all.

 

[duncan99210]

All our lighting is LED. Strip lighting to provide some background light uses these http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/...-led-lighting-strip-multicolour-art-70302674/ lights from Ikea (minus the mains unit). They come in separate piece about a foot long each, add as many as you need to fill the length needed.
For cabin lights, we use dome lights that were originally fitted with festoon bulbs, which were replaced with LED plaques such as eBay item no 262924494620. Make sure they fit inside the dome by measuring first. I've soldered the wire directly to the festoon contacts rather than using the rather flimsy adapter.
We've also a couple of spot lights for bedside use and use g6 bulbs of eBay in them.
All are directly connected to the lighting circuit, no voltage controllers. Some of the first ones we bought weren't great in terms of repliability but that was about 8 years ago now. The current lot we're fitted about 6 years ago when we changed the light fittings and none have required replacement - we live on board for about five months a year, so a reasonable amount of use. Cheap as chips and I keep a supply on hand for replacements but they simply haven't been needed.
We also have one light fitting that has fitted LEDs. It replaced a fluorescent tube fitting, was relatively expensive (€30 iirc) but does the job neatly.
One final point, choose warm white LEDs for the saloon and cabin areas. They feel much nicer than the cold white ones and are readily available.

 

[FullCircle]

We got all of ours from Ikea and put boat 12v directly into units with no problems. We use cheap ebay bulbs where they are direct replacement car bulbs and have only replaced one in 5 years.
Hours of endless fun with a couple of strips which can be programmed to change colour and pattern.

Navigation lights was a different thing for the tricolour....

 

[Malabarista]

thanks for all this information......perfect timing

 

[santelmo]

Me to, thanks for the responses it has been very useful and they have given me some good ideas.

 

[Chris_Robb]

You can shop for car/caravan/boat lamps. These will have DC-DC converters inside that avoid flickering in case of voltage fluctuations and extend lifetime, which is shortened when unregulated 12V LEDs are supplied with the 14+ Volts of a charging battery bank. Dream Lighting has a selection of good quality LED lamps, many of which are available at reasonable prices on Amazon.

That said, the lifetime of a unstabilized 12V LED (e.g. on a strip, which you can buy on a 5m roll m of for around £15) is quite reasonable. Ours are a couple years old now and show no sign of deterioration yet. You can buy plastic or aluminum extrusions to glue these in and make them look stylish. This is usually cheaper and more flexible than buying AC fittings and cutting off the power supply. You'll need to research a bit about what type of LEDs have the desired power efficiency, brightness and come in the colour temperature you want (typically warm white for most interior spaces, day white for galley/heads - at least that's how we liked it).

We also converted some of our existing CFL fixtures by gutting the electronics, replacing the on/off switch with an on/off/on one and inserting red and white LED strips so we can switch between red and white. This was dirt cheap and avoided having to drill any new mounting holes in the boat at all.

Well worth using the aluminium strip as LEDs need a heat sink as well as a stable current to protect their complex electronics.. Many are much more voltage tolerant now.

Thank god some of the really cheap ones have gone. I originally did my engine room on LED - bloody bright, but I could see nothing. On using a prism to check the light, there was no green in the light mix at all - hence the green volvo was invisible. Now most LEDs have a CRI (colour refractive index) on at least 80 (100 is daylight). It is interesting to test how the light is made up. With a prism you will see bars of light across the spectrum but no continuous spectrum.

 

[Gwylan]

Well worth using the aluminium strip as LEDs need a heat sink as well as a stable current to protect their complex electronics.. Many are much more voltage tolerant now.

Thank god some of the really cheap ones have gone. I originally did my engine room on LED - bloody bright, but I could see nothing. On using a prism to check the light, there was no green in the light mix at all - hence the green volvo was invisible. Now most LEDs have a CRI (colour refractive index) on at least 80 (100 is daylight). It is interesting to test how the light is made up. With a prism you will see bars of light across the spectrum but no continuous spectrum.

CRI, Colour rendering index.

 

[poter]

Just gone through this exercise and changing all my interior lights to LED

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Facon-Panc...ncoding=UTF8&refRID=WJK8FYFPY7NS9M8D5SB8&th=1

and the nav lights as well

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Navigation...05&sr=8-7&keywords=boat+navigation+lights+led

the only problem I have had, is getting a solar powered anchor light, any ideas

 

[duncan99210]

Just gone through this exercise and changing all my interior lights to LED

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Facon-Panc...ncoding=UTF8&refRID=WJK8FYFPY7NS9M8D5SB8&th=1

and the nav lights as well

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Navigation...05&sr=8-7&keywords=boat+navigation+lights+led

the only problem I have had, is getting a solar powered anchor light, any ideas

Try this link https://www.gosolar.gr/en/solar-garden-light-6-led-white-steady-on.html . There's a lot of other flavours of light on the site which might meet your requirements.

 

[Lomax]

You might find my "group test" of LED ceiling lights interesting:

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?468078-12V-LED-downlight-group-test