L.E.D.s are coming

[Rebotco]

Many boaters are already using some LEDs, but I find costs are still too high to warrant changing over from fluorecents.

Apart from cost, everything about LEDs seems to be an advantage, most especially the massive battery power savings, which must be the most attractive benefit for boaters.

And it seems things are improving rapidly in LED development, so hopefully we'll soon see the price barrier falling significantly as they become more and more mainstream. LED REPORT

[smileypete]

For DIY LEDing this is site is a good source of LEDs:

 

http://www.ledrise.com/

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited January 8, 2013 by smileypete

[ditchcrawler]

For DIY LEDing this is site is a good source of LEDs:

 

http://www.ledrise.com/

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Or

http://www.baddiethepirate.co.uk/

[Nine of Hearts]

For DIY LEDing this is site is a good source of LEDs:

 

http://www.ledrise.com/

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

 

Are you sure? As I am looking to upgrade my current (see what I did there) rather dim LEDs, I thought I'd have a shufty at this 'ere site. For MR11s and MR16s they're nearly 3 times more expensive than;

 

Simply LED

BLT Direct

Ultra LEDs

 

and of course, other LED suppliers are available...

[BargeeSpud]

Bedazzled are good & they operate canalside too. Can't remember exactly where they are, near Whilton Marina I think, but it was mentioned on another thread a few months back.

Edited January 8, 2013 by Spuds

[Keeping Up]

Bedazzled are good & they operate canalside too. Can't remember exactly where they are, near Whilton Marina I think, but it was mentioned on another thread a few months back.

 

 

I do hope they are good, I've just put in an order to upgrade a whole lot of our lighting.

[Graham Davis]

I've been using UltraLED's for some years, both for the car and the caravan, and have always found them excellent, and getting cheaper.

[BargeeSpud]

I do hope they are good, I've just put in an order to upgrade a whole lot of our lighting.

They cetainly are, I replaced all my bulbs with their LEDs back in August & I've had no problems so far.

 

Incidentally, the CWDF thread I referred to earlier is this one & their location is near bridge 21 on the GU at Weedon, Northants.

[GoodGurl]

I do hope they are good, I've just put in an order to upgrade a whole lot of our lighting.

yes they are very good, we bought 24 3 years ago and all are still working.

[smileypete]

Are you sure? As I am looking to upgrade my current (see what I did there) rather dim LEDs, I thought I'd have a shufty at this 'ere site. For MR11s and MR16s they're nearly 3 times more expensive than;

 

Simply LED

BLT Direct

Ultra LEDs

 

and of course, other LED suppliers are available...

Go on then, find me the cheapest warm white LED MR16 or GU10 with a colour rendering of 80 or more

 

I did mean LED chips and boards for DIY, but they're pretty competitive on other things - if you compare apples with apples

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[lewisericeric]

I was really impressed with bedazzled as we got some led light fittings for our Welsh dresser cupboard in the galley a few weeks back:

 

Welsh dresser galley cupboard

 

We have four lights in total. Two inside. The doors are glazed and two for underneath to give some much required lighting on the worktop below. LEDs have saved us a huge amount of battery power now that we're not on shoreline. Would love to get everything changed over to LED but as another poster has said, it is expensive. We've changed a lot over, although I have to admit, that even warm white on some replacement bulbs is still a bit clinical looking especially in the bedroom. The fittings we got for the Welsh dresser cupboard really are a warm white though and they all look impressive in all the glass cabinets we've had done. It's just the stand alone light fittings with led bulbs that just don't look quite right I think.

[Québec]

We've just put in some warm white 1.7w 12v MR16 LEDs in those areas e.g bedroom, that don't need super-bright lighting. Packet of 3 @ £9.98 at B&Q. Very happy with them....so far. Anybody else using them?

Edited January 9, 2013 by Québec

[bizzard]

We've just put in some warm white 1.7w 12v MR16 LEDs in those areas e.g bedroom, that don't need super-bright lighting. Packet of 3 @ £9.98 at B&Q. Very happy with them....so far. Anybody else using them?

If they're are not of the controlled automotive type and your working them strait from the boats varying 12v supply they will probably fail sooner or later.

[Titan]

If they're are not of the controlled automotive type and your working them strait from the boats varying 12v supply they will probably fail sooner or later.

 

 

I opted for EBay china based co called vitaric x10 G4 warm lite 24 smd led bulbs delivered and now fitted and working a treat for a Tenner very pleased Yes 10 for £10.00 took 4weeks to arrive but im not complaning. Ps Happy new year to you all

[Dominic M]

I suspect LEDs are the future of lighting and will replace the current household low energy bulbs in houses. A good amount of new household lighting is LED, because it is so energy efficient, and a match for any other form of lighting in terms of colour and brilliance.

 

I opted for EBay china based co called vitaric x10 G4 warm lite 24 smd led bulbs delivered and now fitted and working a treat for a Tenner very pleased Yes 10 for £10.00 took 4weeks to arrive but im not complaning. Ps Happy new year to you all

I don't want to dampen your enthusiam, Titan, but you may find that these cheap imports do not last. According to Ricky at Bedazzled (who is something of an authority on LED lighting for boats), LEDs are highly susceptible to failure through voltage fluctuation, and need some sort of regulator built into them to protect against that. So cheap imports may (I don't know for certain) prove to be a false economy. As they say, if it looks too good to be true...........

 

Oh, Bedazzled is on the GU about 10 minutes north of Weedon. It's a 3 acre smallholding as well, with stuff like free range eggs for sale. 01327 349683.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Dominic M

[Chris Pink]

if you particularly worried about over voltage then a stabilised supply is a lot cheaper than the over-priced voltage regulated devices.

 

I have yet to have any of the recent type of cheapies fail and as pointed out above the G4/MR16 replacements are about £1 makes the risk worthwhile.

 

yes, it is better to have the quality units but the price difference is eye watering.

[matty40s]

I started to go LED 4 years ago, then completely 3 years ago. Single bulbs were sourced from a variety of places,ebay(china),midlandswindlers etc.

My fittings/strip lights however come from Ikea,which have an interesting and stylish range, in warm colour light.

I just snipped the 240V transformers off and they work (and continue to work) very well.

[jelunga]

I do hope they are good, I've just put in an order to upgrade a whole lot of our lighting.

I can confirm that they are good to deal with. I bought about 10 lamps from them a while back. When I was getting interference on my wireless on FM and AM they offered to swap the lamps for the later version with better supression foc but in the end not needed.

They are on the GU north of Weedon and south of Whilton. They also have a small holding with pick your own fruit and veg.

 

Edited to add

Dominic beat me to it, but then he is closer!

Edited January 9, 2013 by jelunga

[Keeping Up]

I've only ordered a few so far - mainly because most of our lighting is by fluorescent tubes. There are 14 separate fluorescent lamp units, and they are of the inset type that means there would be big rectangular holes in the woodwork if I were to change to a different type of lamp. I had to do something about it, because the lamp units are no longer available and the inverters in a couple of them have failed; Bedazzled solution of a converted tube is ideal,. except that at £30 per tube the cost for converting the whole boat at once would be just too high for me. So I have am converting only some of them for now, concentrating on the ones we use most and keeping the inverters as spares for the remaining units.

[BargeeSpud]

 

Dominic beat me to it, but then he is closer!

Actually, I beat you both to it!

 

[lewisericeric]

We've just put in some warm white 1.7w 12v MR16 LEDs in those areas e.g bedroom, that don't need super-bright lighting. Packet of 3 @ £9.98 at B&Q. Very happy with them....so far. Anybody else using them?

 

Another thing to consider is certain LEDs are prone to causing fires as the bulb itself can just go up! Check that the ones you've got have the internal fuses /spike protection or don't leave the, on when you go out!!

[Graham Davis]

Another thing to consider is certain LEDs are prone to causing fires as the bulb itself can just go up! Check that the ones you've got have the internal fuses /spike protection or don't leave the, on when you go out!!

 

Do you have documented evidence of that?

[matty40s]

Do you have documented evidence of that?

I have had one go up when I lived in a house, I had a batch of colour changing spots from a pub refit and used a couple in the daughters bedroom. One of the lights, blew several of its LEDs up after a couple of months, and flames came from it. Luckily, someone was in the room at the time and disaster was averted.

I binned the lot swiftly.

[lewisericeric]

I have had one go up when I lived in a house, I had a batch of colour changing spots from a pub refit and used a couple in the daughters bedroom. One of the lights, blew several of its LEDs up after a couple of months, and flames came from it. Luckily, someone was in the room at the time and disaster was averted.

I binned the lot swiftly.

 

I've also had this experience using "normal" "house" ones thanks graham.

Not only that but also the bedazzled website also has a dedicated section regarding certain bulbs catching fire and there is also plenty of info on the Internet about it.

 

Not sure how much more "documeted" you'd like me to be

[matty40s]

I've also had this experience using "normal" "house" ones thanks graham.

Not only that but also the bedazzled website also has a dedicated section regarding certain bulbs catching fire and there is also plenty of info on the Internet about it.

 

Not sure how much more "documeted" you'd like me to be

Thesis pending>?