Touch-start LED lights

Lady Campanula

Lady Campanula

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In considering how best to reduce the 'lecky load drawn by cabin lighting, and sidestep some 'corroded cabling' problems, I find the small multiple-LED lights designed to glue/screw under kitchen wall units to be of interest, as an alternative to dim-but-heavy-power-draw existing kit.


Stick-N-Click-White-LED-kitchen-Push-Lights.jpg



These start/stop by click-pressing them, are powered typically by 3 x AAA cells and are currently under a fiver each.

Would these, does the team think, be impracticable on a boat for night passage and occasional illumination use?

Would one be able to substitute Rechargeable cells for those supplied? There's an inverter on board.

:)
 
I added several to mine using rechargeable AAA cells, but their beam is very directional and not bright enough for my old eyes to read by. But they are good for illuminating steps and such.
 
I have one in the wine cellar (cupboard under the stairs) so it gets used quite frequently:)
The light is cold, okay to see what you're doing or looking for, but I wouldn't use it for ambient light. The batteries last for yonks.
 
I bought three for about €6 less bats. and use them all the time ( originally for camp cruising) Now have them around the house for night time rambles. You can read by them but might prefer something brighter. They always say that the life is 100,000 hrs, but I wonder how long the switch will last? As said batts last ages.
A
 
I really prefer these. The ones above are just too dim, a magnet is by far more useful than a sticky pad (that you'll have to unstick every time you change the batteries) and they can be had for as little as 1£.
Besides the little rocker switch works better than the push push thingy.
 
I have a handful of the stick on type in my Dehler 22 which otherwise just has one rather doleful central light that gobbles about 10w. from my wee leisure battery that relies on a small solar panel for sustainance.

As others have said, they are useful for finding your way around, getting into/out of bunk type operations, even cooking, but not enough for reading..its possible...but a strain. And yes you do have to replace the sticky when its battery change time.

For what you pay they are OK, but not perfect by a longway. At that price you can buy one and see how you get on. The blue brighter ones 2nd Apprentice highlights are really good though. I use a longer stick version for my work..damned useful piece of kit.

Tim
 
LED lights

I have some of the type referred to by 2nd Apprentice. They are brilliant and I find OK to read with provided it is close and pointing the right way. I would not bother about rechargeable batteries unless you really punish them with use. However for the cabin you could wire 3 in series and run off the 12v system. They have a simple series resistor current limiting so a resistor could be substituted for running one or two lights.
sorry I think I paid more like 2 squid for em.
olewill
 
Alfie168 said:
I have a handful of the stick on type in my Dehler 22 which otherwise just has one rather doleful central light that gobbles about 10w. from my wee leisure battery that relies on a small solar panel for sustainance.

As others have said, they are useful for finding your way around, getting into/out of bunk type operations, even cooking, but not enough for reading..its possible...but a strain. And yes you do have to replace the sticky when its battery change time.

For what you pay they are OK, but not perfect by a longway. At that price you can buy one and see how you get on. The blue brighter ones 2nd Apprentice highlights are really good though. I use a longer stick version for my work..damned useful piece of kit.

Tim
Click to expand...

I have these in lockers, they dont need to be unstuck, well not mine anyway, you just twist them and they come apart, leaving the sticky pad, still stuck. I also have some which are long with three lights, which are equally as useful and you just slide those to come apart.
As an aside, I have modified/fitted all LED lights in my boat, (theres a lot of them) the difference in power consumption on a 57' boat is amazing! Wish I could get the equivalent of an LED fridge, freezer and pumps!!!!!
 
I'm using half a dozen of the bigger 20-odd LED types. They use AA batts rather than AAA and as others have said last for ages and which can often be found in 'pound shops' for around, well, £1 for six. Mine are held to the headlining with Velcro and don't drop off. Come to think of it quite a few things on the boat are secured with Velcro; (what about a Velcro anchor, that's the kind of thing NASA could generally be relied on to develop before the USGov clipped their wings).

Anyway it's refreshing to find something that works well on a boat which comes without the usual 'yacht tax' price enhancement.
 
I have some of those & they are fine, not as bright as the normal ones but jolly usefull. Looking to change my main cabin mights to LED as soon as I can find some sensibly priced ones that will fit.
 
I've half a dozen scattered around the boat, not as illumination instead of cabin lights but as handy little torches.

They don't stick up as well as advertised. I've only one stuck up, in a locker where I was doing a lot of re-wiring work. They're very handy to scatter around when working in dark cubby holes and the batteries seem to last a lot longer than traditional torches.

You should be paying well under a fiver though. I think I paid about £1.99 per three.
 
SimbaDog said:
I have some of those & they are fine, not as bright as the normal ones but jolly usefull. Looking to change my main cabin mights to LED as soon as I can find some sensibly priced ones that will fit.
Click to expand...

You can get some natty little ceramic adaptors, meant originally foir halogen lights, hence ceramic as they get hot. I have epoxied these into all my lights, as the LED's are cold, to do away with bayonet type bulbs, even LED ones and fitted instead SMD's (surface mounted diodes) which when the yellow (soft) lights are ordered, are very good. I havent found a light aboard any boat YET that couldnt be modified to take LED bulbs of some sort. Searolf have the "bulbs" and adaptors. I got some others from another supplier, who I normally use, but cant remember the name, a search on here would find it, I've mentioned it before.
 
LED Lights

My main cabin lights are 34 year old circular models that held bayonet type bulbs with 2 contacts on the base. 10w each. Now replaced with 20w eqivalent LED bulbs from www.bedazzled.uk.com Amazing difference both in light provided and power consumption. Bulbs were about £12 each IIRC but well worth it in my opinion. Using the original light fitting means the light is not too directional like many of the new complete units you buy.
 
I've found the same as all the above, and you can change the batteries by twisting the base off, however haven't found the sticky patches lasted that long. Also very useful for illuminating awkward jobs.
 
I've got a few wired together, from a switch and a 4.8v regulator. I experimented first with a single unit, mounted on a mahogany base with a switch and regulator, works well and little draw
 
Lady Campanula said:
In considering how best to reduce the 'lecky load drawn by cabin lighting, and sidestep some 'corroded cabling' problems, I find the small multiple-LED lights designed to glue/screw under kitchen wall units to be of interest, as an alternative to dim-but-heavy-power-draw existing kit.


Stick-N-Click-White-LED-kitchen-Push-Lights.jpg



These start/stop by click-pressing them, are powered typically by 3 x AAA cells and are currently under a fiver each.

Would these, does the team think, be impracticable on a boat for night passage and occasional illumination use?

Would one be able to substitute Rechargeable cells for those supplied? There's an inverter on board.

:)
Click to expand...

I bought some like these from Ikea (white body) which we use in the bedrooms. Since fitting them we have not found a need to use the fixed mains lamps at all. We use rechargeable AAA 1000 from 7dayshop, so far (since June) I have not had to recharge the cells since. I use one of 3 12v chargers I have on board, see 7dayshop for chargers too.

I think their use will depend upon how bright your boat is, we for example use light coloured bedding, this reflects light quite well, if your boat is dark wood and furniture I would suggest you may need many more lamps than we have; In the bedrooms we have 2 above each double bed.

For reading I am going to have to relocate mine, I put them above our heads, i.e. above the pillows, but as they are rather directional I intend to move them approx 10" further down the bed, so they will be above the book if you are sat up reading at night.

We plan to buy another clutch to fit them above the galley work tops and inside cupboards, including the chain lockers. If they fail in the lockers, it will be a cheap enough experiments.

I also intend to buy a couple with the plan of replacing all the fitted LEDs with bright reds, these hopefully will replace my saloon night lights which are still incandescent bulbs.

We have fitted (mains) LED lamps in the saloon and galley, these are brilliant, but I am so pleased with these battery run lamps I intend to finish the job with them; It was my intention to finish with more mains (mains in this case means the boats 12v cct).

EDIT>>> the ikea units have two holes in addition to the sticky pad to allow you to screw them up, which I did.
 
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It seems a consensus that variants on the stick up/screw up little LED lights are well approved. I'll be replacing all the little conventional torches screwed up in unsightly places - and which are usually u/s when needed - with LED AAA touch lights as above.

The low cost, high reliability, and no wiring means I'll be able to fit 'task lighting' in a dozen, needy places where now there is none.

The existing wired 12v fittings will, progressively, have LED bulbs retro-fitted as above.

A 'result'...

:)
 
The Pound shop have these on sale 2 for.....well work that one out for yourself.

Their Kodak alkaline cells from same shop (6 for a ...) seem to be pretty good, left the light on in the heads 18 days ago and it was still on this morning.
 
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