Nice LED interior lights (not replacement bulbs)?

[rogerthebodger]

Strips of LEDs are the closest but can be a bit naff looking in some locations.

I am in the process of replacing the insides of my old 12vdc fluorescent lights with several of the naff LED strips. In some I have fitted both red and warm white. In some cold white if I want a good light like in my engine room.

I have also taken some of the dot it type battery lights and fitted 5 vdc regulators to add into cupboards and lockers and yes I know they are not very efficient but are only used when looking in the locker so are not on very long.

 

[jfm]

Pete, can you/do you want to fit recessed lights, ie like the typical downlighters? About 70mm hole and needs about 25mm recess depth

I have a large quantity of surplus Cantalupi Desert LED lights and would be happy to donate some FOC. These are the best on the market and I had them fitted to my new build this year, and for a technical reason they are all changed (hard to explain, nothing wrong with them, and they have been replaced by new identical lights). About £100 each new. What you get for that money, apart from no food for a month, is a light quality far superior to cheap LEDs - once you see it you understand what I mean. Their CRI is approaching the 90s, whereas cheap stuff is in the 70s, and that is one heck of a difference. Their colour is 3200K iirc, which is slightly warm white but not yellowy, so just right, but it is the CRI that will blow you away; colour isn't the main event with LED lighting despite what everyone says

Anyway, these may not of course be the look/feel/fit that you want, including the fact they are square sort of modern designer Italian style, but if you can use them and let me know the quantity I can send them FOC early in new year. I'd prefer to do that only if you will definitely use them, otherwise it makes more sense to donate to someone else (about 25 lights worth are in the queue on mobo forum already!). I can also send you one in a jiffy bag for a look-see

Details below. Just sayin', and no worries if these are not what you are looking for. Just to be clear, the hole you cut in the ceiling is round not square and the entire foot print is about 80mm square

10-30volts btw, and dimmable if you want (but there is some complexity re dimming)

 

[prv]

Hi John - what an amazing offer, thanks a lot!

I don't have room to recess things in the deckhead, but what I do have is a stock of solid cherry timber that's a pretty good match to the boat's interior. I could easily make up a series of pattress-type plates with a nice bevelled or bullnosed border around the light, and then surface mount them.

Of course, that's getting back to manufacturing light fittings again . Albeit a simple saw and router job rather than trying to turn domes without a lathe.

Not knowing enough about lights to calculate these things, I have no real idea how many I would need. This is a picture (old, from the ad when we bought her) of the saloon:

Two per side over the settees, perhaps, and one above the galley? (You can tell where the galley is by the tap just peeking into the picture.)

Although, I'm still undecided about the aesthetics. Not sure I want to interrupt the long sweeps of white headlining between wooden battens, with square inch-deep lumps. Maybe making the pattresses a more elongated shape would have less of a roadblock type effect. Perhaps a longish diamond shape, with the light turned 45º.

Still pondering - can I get back to you?

Cheers,

Pete

 

[RobF]

Slight drift in topic but what a lovely interior to your boat! Jealous?- a bit! :encouragement:

I was thinking exactly the same thing. A quick look at the signature has led me to believe it might be a Najad 390.

 

[jfm]

Pete yes get back to me whenever. The new lights are in France delivered to the boat, and I'll be going round swapping out the old ones over the new year holiday probably or mid january. I have about 100 of them to do, eek. There is nothing wrong with the old ones btw; it's a strange shaggy dog story as to why they all are being replaced (and not taken back by Cantalupi)

As for quantity, they run at 3w but are equivalent brightness to a 15-20w halogen so you don't want to overdo them (unless you fit dimmers, but that would be yet more work in your project. Or switch them in groups, which might be easy to do). Guessing from that picture, yes two over each sofa would be ok, and maybe two down the centreline, and definitely two over the galley I'd say. Also it would be nice to dismantle two of them and fit just the light engines into your spotlight/reading lights. But yes you'd have some work to do in making cherry blocks, and they wouldn't look ideal. PM me an address and I'll jiffy bag a couple to you so you can offer them up and think about it

 

[prv]

it's a strange shaggy dog story as to why they all are being replaced (and not taken back by Cantalupi)

I vaguely remember it being mentioned on the big thread over in the Other Place

Also it would be nice to dismantle two of them and fit just the light engines into your spotlight/reading lights.

Ah, the tinny spotlights are due to disappear this winter anyway. They're right in the way of where I want to mount some pictures (or rather, one picture of the old boat, one chart of where we hope to go in the new one ). The watercolour print of a Danish fishing harbour is already in a skip . Note also the stereo speaker inexplicably mounted inside the locker - the plan is to replace speaker and light on each side with a small angled "box" where the bulkhead meets the underneath of the side deck. This will contain a small but reasonably good-quality speaker (I don't play music all that loud anyway) and a reading light fixed at the most suitable angle.

PM me an address and I'll jiffy bag a couple to you so you can offer them up and think about it

That's very kind - thanks. PM on its way.

Pete

 

[leona912]

Hi, peter,
I know a supplier with good range of LED products. Like LED bulbs, commercial lighting, Ceiling lights,outdoor lighting, LED strips, LED lamps, LED flashlights, LED grow light , LED car lights and some other nice LED products.
I initially find this supplier on Amazon, and then I knew they have their own websites and you can just Google Lighting Ever, and you will find it.
I bought a lot of products form them, not every products are the best but a lo of them are pretty good in quality, price and customer service. So far, I am very satisfied with this supplier.
Hope that will help you.

 

[Steve Clayton]

........ About £25 from Marine Megastore - not on the website, but they did stock them

Di

RESPECT!!!!!!!!
You've actually received something from ...Megastore!!!!!
(not to be confused with ....Superstore)

 

[Sailingsaves]

Drop me a pm with your wishes / design ideas / drawing and I may be able to make something up for you at cost (not a lot of work at moment - so doing a good job for you and gaining word of mouth referrals would be good)

I love working with LEDs and am good with woodwork too and lenses / acrylic. I can do very slim smd LEDs, but bright.

Installed 3 LEDs in a moody recently and owner reckons the interior is 5x as bright as before.

Anyway, offer is there. Also have a 3-D printer that I made (and does a good job) and I can do CAD if you give me some ideas / designs to work from.