Lighting

[Nemysys]

Sorry all, as mentioned before, we are going to do a staged refit of our narrow boat, whilst we know roughly what we want, we want to avoid any pitfalls and regrets. 

 

Currently we have a mixture of 12v and 240v lighting. 

 

Intention was to replace all lights with 12v LED lighting. Proper fused ones of course.

is there any reason why we should keep any 240v lighting? I can’t think of any good reason. 

 

We are occasional boaters and apart from the marina, very rarely hook-up. Although we can produce 240v from alternator or pure sine wave inverter if required.

 

Also any thoughts about running extra cable lengths while we can access? 

For example near the bow, we have 2 x 8w 12v tube lights, was going to replace with LED, so expect current draw to be less.

etc.

 

 

[blackrose]

Do you actually gain anything from getting rid of systems? I like having multiple systems on my boat even if some are rarely used.

 

The only mains lights on my boat are a few small table lamps but I see no reason to get rid of them.

 

I got all my led lights from Bedazzled about 12 years ago. They've been good. Previously I had some from Ultraleds and they all soon fizzled out one by one.

Edited July 5, 2019 by blackrose

[Nemysys]

36 minutes ago, blackrose said:

Do you actually gain anything from getting rid of systems? I like having multiple systems on my boat even if some are rarely used.

 

The only mains lights on my boat are a few small table lamps but I see no reason to get rid of them.

 

I got all my led lights from Bedazzled about 12 years ago. They've been good. Previously I had some from Ultraleds and they all soon fizzled out one by one.

Thanks.

 

Yes, they would be from Bedazzled, just around the corner from us.

 

only thing about getting rid of 240v lights is to modernise the boat, get rid of 4ft fluorescent strips and a 1970’s wall light. Alternative is to replace the lights, but they hardly get used. 

 

Just looking for opinions and ideas etc.

 

But you do raise a good point, keep options open.

 

Edited July 5, 2019 by Nemysys

[nicknorman]

We certainly don’t have any mains lighting. LEDs are low voltage DC devices, just a few volts. So there doesn’t seem any point in starting out with high voltage ac. Even less point in starting out with 12v stepping up to 230v ac then back down to low voltage dc!

 

The best thing we did lighting-wise was to install LED tape under the gunnels. Gives a very nice overall diffuse illumination to the boat without any lights glaring in you face. We only use the overhead lighting for eating and very occasionally for doing something that requires direct lighting.

 

Better still, we made it RGB (ie multicolour) lighting and, by means of an iPhone app, we can change the colour and brightness to whatever we like. Amber/red glow in winter, warm white in summer. Bright purple when Strictly is on. Etc etc. And pretty cheap from eBay etc.