Lighting upgrade - LED/Halogen/Low voltage or what?

C

crazy4557

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 Aug 2008
Messages
957
Location
Lymington
Visit site
I'm upgrading the interior and deck lights on my Princes V40 and am completely unsure as to what type of lights to choose.
They will be in the normal places i.e saloon/above galley/bedrooms and heads. Also, on deck incorporated into the underneath of the radar arch are another couple.
But, I don't know which types best. I don't want 'cold' lighting which I know modern stuff can be like. Also, I don't want to
spend a fortune as we rarely use lights. But at the same time I wanted to take the opportunity to modernise so can anyone explain what's what and why and what you might fit.

I'm looking at the range from Timage but can be persuaded to buy cheaper elswhere:D

BTW give it me me in basic form...I can just about wire a three pin plug and amps and thingy's mean nought to me :cool:
 
I've gone to LED and then partially back to halogen. I found my old eyes read better by brighter halogen. The LED's low consumption is still not as low as a florescent tube per lumin but are great for lamps that need to burn a long time. I don't believe all the LED life promises though, some of my older LED installations are failing already, nowhere near 10 000 hours.
 
Also had led's fail way way below predicted hours. That said just on power consumption wouldn't use anything else. aten lighting (i think) are very good. Will custom make clusters if non standard.
 
95% of LED stuff is junk and horrible and the stuff that RAI refers to falls in that category. If you get lights with the latest Cree and Philips LEDs, eg Dessert by Cantalupi (which should directly replace your old halogens) you'll be amazed. I never thought I'd say this, but they are actually better and nicer light/feel/ambience than halogens. They are the right colour and ultra high CRI. Quick marine lighting and Foresti Suardi, at top ends of their ranges, also do good interior LED lights. Not quite as good, but still very good, and a bit cheaper

I'll never spec halogen ever again, now that I've discovered these Dessert (and related ranges) LEDs
 
jfm said:
95% of LED stuff is junk and horrible and the stuff that RAI refers to falls in that category. If you get lights with the latest Cree and Philips LEDs, eg Dessert by Cantalupi (which should directly replace your old halogens) you'll be amazed. I never thought I'd say this, but they are actually better and nicer light/feel/ambience than halogens. They are the right colour and ultra high CRI. Quick marine lighting and Foresti Suardi, at top ends of their ranges, also do good interior LED lights. Not quite as good, but still very good, and a bit cheaper

I'll never spec halogen ever again, now that I've discovered these Dessert (and related ranges) LEDs
Click to expand...

Thanks JFM,

Do you need any upgrades apart from the light fitting/bulbs or is it plug and play?

Also, who stocks these in the UK?
 
Last edited:
Are there any halogen-replacement bulb fittings available that use these latest leds? I'm quite happy with the light fittings in my boat, but I'd quite like to replace all the G4 halogen bulbs with leds. Like others I've tried various cheap options, but they are all junk and I've gone back to halogen. Now that nights on the hook are beckoning once again, leds would be helpful.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
A quick look at the G4 bulbs on that site doesn't tell me anything about the technical spec of the leds...

Cheers
Jimmy
Click to expand...
It wont becuase it they admitted to say 70% CRI people would google that then no-one would buy them. Many LED suppliers trade on the basis of selling junk to an unsuspecting public who do not yet know how to quantify light quality (CRI and other measures) and who are fixated only on colour temperature (which is a mere 1/3rd of the story...)
 
crazy4557 said:
Thanks JFM,

Do you need any upgrades apart from the light fitting/bulbs or is it plug and play?

Also, who stocks these in the UK?
Click to expand...

It is plug and play unless you want dimming (which, in a saloon, i suggest you do). Without dimming you just connect the 24v wires in your existing lighting circuit to the new LED fitting and click it into the ceiling on the usual spring retainers (or 12v). With dimming you need to install a dedicated dimmer (CLL is the model that suits Dessert lights) and this dimmer, I think, needs to intercept both the + and - wires to the light circuit, plus it needs to be switched by a non latching momentary switch not a latching on/off switch. you touch the switch to turn on/off, and hold the switch to cycle thru the dim/undim cycle. You can fit any number of momentary switches in parallel to one dimmer, so 2 or 3 or 4 way switching is a cinch

Thus, non dimming is easy plug-and-play whereas dimming is quite a big job potentially on an already built boat

The UK suppliers are www.improducts.co.uk. Desserts are somewhere in the £80 each ballpark alas, I think, though I'm not 100% sure and might be worng on that. The switches to fit into existing GeWiss Playbus mounting plates (which I suspect is what you have) are stock items from Hedley and Ellis in Peterborough - just order by phone and cr card, very nice crowd to deal with
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
Are there any halogen-replacement bulb fittings available that use these latest leds? I'm quite happy with the light fittings in my boat, but I'd quite like to replace all the G4 halogen bulbs with leds. Like others I've tried various cheap options, but they are all junk and I've gone back to halogen. Now that nights on the hook are beckoning once again, leds would be helpful.

Cheers
Jimmy
Click to expand...
Tbh you need the whole fixture Jimmy. Have a look at mine next week and you'll see the whole reflector is redesigned. A bulb change only would give you only part of the quality upgrade. I've sent you a PM also
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
Are there any halogen-replacement bulb fittings available that use these latest leds? I'm quite happy with the light fittings in my boat, but I'd quite like to replace all the G4 halogen bulbs with leds. Like others I've tried various cheap options, but they are all junk and I've gone back to halogen. Now that nights on the hook are beckoning once again, leds would be helpful.

Cheers
Jimmy
Click to expand...

I would be very interested on this too. Did some research earlier and it would seem that there are very few proper G4 replacements available. IIRC, Philips Master Led -series and Osram Star were about the only proper ones around and the problem is they are too long and bulky to fit.
 
scubaman said:
I would be very interested on this too. Did some research earlier and it would seem that there are very few proper G4 replacements available. IIRC, Philips Master Led -series and Osram Star were about the only proper ones around and the problem is they are too long and bulky to fit.
Click to expand...

10-30V constant current lamps would be suitable for your fixtures. Good quality products contain electronics that prevent damage caused by voltage transients (spikes) and self resetting fuses that protect the lamp from over current and will also shut it down if it overheats.

I suggest you look at warm white lamps which will give pretty much the same colour temperature as standard halogen capsule lamps.

Regards
 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-X-G4-S...18?pt=UK_Light_Bulbs&var=&hash=item589b354aee

I have tried several led bulbs and have been disappointed with performance and life until I bought these 2 years ago, warm white, 24 smd lots of leds so you loose shadow issues. they fit as a direct replacement in g4. although if you want them central the pins need 3 mm cutting off with wire cutters.

Halogen got seriously hot, these stay cool/warm never hot.
halogen used to suffer with dirty pins that needed cleaning, these do not.

so far not a single led has died. (each bulb has 24 mini LEDs )

about £1 each including P&P
 
Last edited:
after many tests and trials, we have now replaced almost all halogen lights in Blue Angel, about 150 pcs !
we used the led range from Quick marine lights, (thanks JFM for the pointers)
models Kay, Sonia, Yoko and Jacob.
all warm white , NOT day light,
dedicated dimmers are available
very pleased with them, and bought directly from the distributor at dealer conditions,
but even at list prices are not too bad.

don't want to start a trade with this, but if I can help you getting some, send a message.

for the G4 bulb replacements,
while testing many, (most of them are crab)
we came across models from DIXPLAY in Italy,
besides the fact that the warm white is exceptionally nice (but not 100% consistend over different delivery's)
they have 2 collor models, such as Blue / white, on standard wiring, (quickly push on /off to change collor)
which were great for me to use as "deck" lights, and for the "under bed" lights

edit: important detail :) , the deck lights are "COLD white / blue"
cockpit lights are DIXPLAY warm white
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top