LEd Strip lighting

[Stemar]

The galley lighting on Jazzcat has been declared inadequate - it's a single fluorescent fitting, and an LED strip has been requested.

It's a linear galley, about 2.5m long. Finding the strips and the channel is easy enough, but what wattage do I need? Will 4.8w/m be enough, or should I go for 9.6w? Any gotchas to watch out for?

Thanks

 

[NormanS]

Uncle Google will give you the relationship between watts and lumens, which makes it fairly easy to see what's needed.
When we had 8w fluorescent lights, we bought some LED replacement tubes, to fit in the same fittings. Half the power for twice the light. (Approximately). The LED tubes were quite expensive, but they may be cheaper now.

 

[wonkywinch]

Very roughly LED watts are about 1/10th of old incandescent bulbs so visualise a 10 watt LED as an old 100 watt bulb.

Colour temperature is important (to me) so I always fit warm white to living areas cool white to kitchens and bathrooms.

 

[B27]

Some of the '12V' led lights will blow up at 14.4V charging.
I have some 2W downlights which are very bright in the cabin at 12V, I run them from a regulator and turn it down to about 11V, which probably roughly halves the power.

Some of the 'inline' remote control dimmers will accept more than 12V and protect the LEDs.
But it's hard to know what you're buying sometimes.

 

[wonkywinch]

You don't need a regulator for LEDs, a simple resistor will do to act as a current limiter, and via Ohms Law, the voltage across the LED circuit once you know the current they need.

 

[Rappey]

I had a twin tube flourescent with a difused lens cover.about 12" long. Removed the guts and put in a 4w cob led. Its way to bright..

 

[PaulRainbow]

The galley lighting on Jazzcat has been declared inadequate - it's a single fluorescent fitting, and an LED strip has been requested.

It's a linear galley, about 2.5m long. Finding the strips and the channel is easy enough, but what wattage do I need? Will 4.8w/m be enough, or should I go for 9.6w? Any gotchas to watch out for?

Thanks

Get the brightest you can and wire them up to a remote dimmer or a DC-DC converter which you can turn the voltage down if needed.

On my own boat, i have both. I use a DC-DC converter to limit the voltage to 12v, then connect the output to a remote dimmer. You can turn bright lights down, you can't turn dim ones up.

 

[PaulRainbow]

You don't need a regulator for LEDs, a simple resistor will do to act as a current limiter, and via Ohms Law, the voltage across the LED circuit once you know the current they need.

A DC-DC converter works better. You get a constant, steady voltage, irrespective of input voltage (12v to 14.4v). A resistor won't do that as well and can suffer from heat issues.

 

[garymalmgren]

If you do get strips. put some INSIDE lockers.
i did it and it is a great move.

gary

 

[Stemar]

Get the brightest you can and wire them up to a remote dimmer or a DC-DC converter which you can turn the voltage down if needed.

On my own boat, i have both. I use a DC-DC converter to limit the voltage to 12v, then connect the output to a remote dimmer. You can turn bright lights down, you can't turn dim ones up.

That definitely sounds like a plan. Thanks for the dimmer idea. I did wonder how well the lights might cope with 14+v, and that also solves that issue.

 

[Tradewinds]

Have a look at www.atenlighting.co.uk for ready made options.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Get the brightest you can and wire them up to a remote dimmer or a DC-DC converter which you can turn the voltage down if needed.

On my own boat, i have both. I use a DC-DC converter to limit the voltage to 12v, then connect the output to a remote dimmer. You can turn bright lights down, you can't turn dim ones up.

Absolutely this. LED tape is cheap as chips now, as are the little connectors to make wiring up easy, though you’ll want to check it works then waterproof it again to keep the condensation out of the joints.

 

[Mister E]

Look at the stuff for Camer van Motorhome. They are intended to be used in vehicles with alternators.

 

[lektran]

I installed a 4.8w/m strip from Aten in our galley under an overhead cabinet, so only about 50cm from the benchtop and they're plenty bright enough, easily the best lit spot on the boat. I don't think I'd go any brighter regardless of where I was putting them.

Didn't bother with a DC converter and haven't had any issues coming up on 12 months.

 

[MontyMariner]

I've used various stick on led strips and kitchen under unit down lights and never had a problem with them when the engine is running, but I don't often have the lights on when running under engine.
As Mr E suggests, Motorhome light suppliers should be a good source, such as LED Interior Strip Lights for motorhomes, caravans, campervans, vans, boats, vehicles

 

[B27]

Look at the stuff for Camer van Motorhome. They are intended to be used in vehicles with alternators.

Indeed.
They are mostly IC regulated units which run from 10 to 30V DC.

But you pay for that, you can buy a lot of the simple 12V tape which is just LEDs and resistors, plus a separate DC/DC convertor or regulator or controller for the price of one downlight.

Using the crude LED/resistor products has the advantage of letting you adjust the regulator to control the brightness.

I've got a mixture of the two sorts, reading lights which take 12/24V led 'bulbs', some domestic 12V downlights on external regulators.
MK2 switch panel will have a dimmer for some of the cabin lights, they are nice if you want to work by them but too bright for other times.

 

[harvey38]

Have a look at www.atenlighting.co.uk for ready made options.

Another for Aten, we have some of their dimmable units behind the pelmets in the saloon on a dimmer switch, quality kit.

 

[st599]

Very roughly LED watts are about 1/10th of old incandescent bulbs so visualise a 10 watt LED as an old 100 watt bulb.

Colour temperature is important (to me) so I always fit warm white to living areas cool white to kitchens and bathrooms.

Not just temperature, but spectrum. You can get cheap "white" LEDs which are RGB LEDs with not much output in Yellow.

 

[PaulRainbow]

I installed a 4.8w/m strip from Aten in our galley under an overhead cabinet, so only about 50cm from the benchtop and they're plenty bright enough, easily the best lit spot on the boat. I don't think I'd go any brighter regardless of where I was putting them.

Didn't bother with a DC converter and haven't had any issues coming up on 12 months.

Absolutely, ignore the professional marine electrician and go for the advice of one random bloke on an internet forum who's used LEDs on one boat for a whole year.

On the other hand, i've been called out to boats where the LEDs are so hot you can smell them, when the mains charger is on and has probably been on for a while.

 

[Clancy Moped]

Some LEDs can make your interior varnish look a bit green, stick to warm white in my book.