Jump to content

Are LED Tunnel Lights Really Necessary


Featured Posts

I dislike lights in tunnels. Ok you need some illumination but nothing particularly bright. 

 

I suppose the best approach would be to have a ridiculously high powered "night sun" light bar on the boat which only ever gets used it someone else shows you the same thing..

 

Rest of the time just a normal vehicle type fog lamp turned slightly to the right or a trad tunnel light will do. 

 

I have always had a lamp by the hatches but that is just a relatively small hand rotatable spotlamp. 

1 hour ago, Ray T said:

No, working boaters managed perfectly well without them.

 

29177061_346282129201567_2654099152509599744_n.jpg

Nice picture of commercial road lock :)

 

or should I say locks. The other one no longer operational sadly, and the house which is just visible to the right is no longer there of course. 

Edited by magnetman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, magnetman said:

I dislike lights in tunnels. Ok you need some illumination but nothing particularly bright. 

 

I suppose the best approach would be to have a ridiculously high powered "night sun" light bar on the boat which only ever gets used it someone else shows you the same thing..

 

 

I have heard that a vertically mounted mirror on the boat works.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to cycle from Harbledown to the uni versity of canterbury in winter at night.

1976 dynamo lights on my bike.

The ba$$ards never dipped their lights on the little lanes.

Eventually karma in the form of one of the first ever rapid firing strobe flashguns got employed.

After a couple of goes the regulars not only dipped but slowed down too.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, roland elsdon said:

Butty with a headlight!!! Flash. 
 Must be a grand union ... course the wooden blocky things on the planks were to run the wire from the accumulator to the headlight

A pair of Woolwich boats by the look of it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, roland elsdon said:

course the wooden blocky things on the planks were to run the wire from the accumulator to the headlight

 

Must be a pretty high wattage bulb in there to need a cable that large. I bet they would be happy with LED if they had the chance.

 

Presumably the accumulator was in the motor so the cable length had to be adjustable somehow. 

 

 

Edited by magnetman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, David Mack said:

The stated aim of the Boat Safety Scheme is to make sure boats are safe, not for the occupants of that boat, but for others around them.  So it would be entirely consistent for the BSS to specify the maximum power of tunnel lamps and the beam pattern. Any that are too bright and/or pointing in teh wrong direction would result in a BSS fail.

Wouldn't stop the plokers who remove non-compliant stuff for the examination and put it back afterwards, but might damp down sales of the damn things.

Oh god, don't encourage them, there is too much daft regulations as it is!

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Rebotco said:

So what?

cars are also 12 volt and a halogen headlight can dazzle you as much as an LED.

The voltage is as irrelevant as the fact that an LED is being singled out.

ALL lights, inappropriately powered can equally dazzle you.

You are correct however car lights can be dipped and are correctly adjusted to keep the dazzle to a minimum.  It is also illegal not to dip your headlights to on coming traffic.  If the LED lights are angled correctly then no problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, David Mack said:

The stated aim of the Boat Safety Scheme is to make sure boats are safe, not for the occupants of that boat, but for others around them.  So it would be entirely consistent for the BSS to specify the maximum power of tunnel lamps and the beam pattern. Any that are too bright and/or pointing in teh wrong direction would result in a BSS fail.

Wouldn't stop the plokers who remove non-compliant stuff for the examination and put it back afterwards, but might damp down sales of the damn things.

Absolutely agree!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My procedure for tunnels - I generally have a pair of dark sunglasses on, these stay on 'till I'm just inside the tunnel. My halogen light is pointing up onto the roof and just slightly to the right, plenty of light to see with. I also switch on my nav lights, these give enough coloured light on the tunnel wall for gauging where I am in relation to them, and also ( I presume ) give anybody coming towards me a better indication of where my boat is in relation to the tunnel.

 

Just out of interest, when going through Braunston tunnel last year and on my own, I turned off the tunnel light just leaving the nav lights on, that was enough light to see by.

 

Now, to ultra bright LED lights, a few years ago, the road I was using to cycle to work had roadworks for 6 months over the winter period. I found another route I could use which was mainly off road. I bought one of those fantastic LED lights and was happy cycling on the rough track in the dark, the light showing me the way. After about 5 miles, the track finished and I was back on a very quiet road. A good distance away from me a car was coming towards me, the driver had dipped his lights and he flashed me to do the same. It was at that point I realised how much of a problem my bike light could cause. I then lowered the light, and thus the beam, to point down.

 

My point? I'm sure many of these LED tunnel light users are unaware of the problems they cause, but as more people make them aware, I would hope, like me, they would take remedial action - but maybe I'm a dreamer!! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

all the ones i’ve noticed fitted to boats seem to be facing dead ahead, perhaps thats part of the problem?

 

Yes it's not really anything to do with the light source itself (LED, halogen, etc) but simply about the tunnel light not being properly aligned. A bright halogen tunnel lamp can be just as blinding if it's pointed straight into your eyes.

 

 

Edited by blackrose
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe it won't ever happen because of cost (and it uses that horrible modern technology stuff that people hate so much) but the kind of auto-dipping headlight some new cars (including mine) have would solve the problem. On full beam a camera recognises the light/boat coming the other way and steers a dark spot in the beam pattern over it, but everything else stays lit up.

 

Works jaw-droppingly well on my car (these are the new LED-array lights), headlights stay on full beam but a car coming the other way travels without being dazzled in a moving dark area.

 

These are being fitted to more cars as the price comes down, there's no reason boats couldn't borrow the technology from the car market...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 watts probably. Thats what ours has.

its interesting because I dont think the butty boats ever had headlights as built.

certainly unless the holes for the stand on ours had been weld filled it did not have any, and our deck was original.

Lot of work to remote wire a light from the accumulator in front of the cabin to the bow.

Someone who knows more will be along.

Yes I know you were being flippant!!!

Yes I know you were being flippant!!!e

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have an LED light, but is positioned so that the lamp itself is hidden partially from oncoming boats by the top of the catch cover, and is aimed slight right & upwards and gives a good illumination of the tunnel wall & ceiling.

 

Was once chastised by an oncoming/passing boater saying my light was hidden...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 23/10/2020 at 17:37, Rebotco said:

So what?

cars are also 12 volt and a halogen headlight can dazzle you as much as an LED.

The voltage is as irrelevant as the fact that an LED is being singled out.

ALL lights, inappropriately powered can equally dazzle you.

Part of the problem is that being cheap and widely available there are more fitted to boats than other powerful lamps. There is definitely something about the light produced by LED, cars fitted with them affect night vision even if not overly bright and i find LED street lighting worse than nothing! 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, BWM said:

Part of the problem is that being cheap and widely available there are more fitted to boats than other powerful lamps. There is definitely something about the light produced by LED, cars fitted with them affect night vision even if not overly bright and i find LED street lighting worse than nothing! 

 

I don't think LEDs are a problem at all.  In fact I think they are a marvellous solution to many problems.

I strongly welcome their development as they allow me do do many things better, and some that I couldn't do at all before they came along.

If there's a problem at all, it is people confusing the source of light, when they really mean the use of light. 

Its the faulty usage of any light that causes problems, not whether they are LEDs.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

11 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

Interesting that not one person has noted my post #13, including the 2 (or was it 3?) people who made the original comment that I was referring back to (but couldn't be bothered to go back & search for).

 

On 23/10/2020 at 17:42, Keeping Up said:

People have said here on the Forum that LEDs are more dazzling than incandescent bulbs because the wavelength of their light destroys your night-vision

 

 OK, I'll bite.  They are mistaken!

 

Cool White colour LEDs will dazzle/destroy night vision more than warmer colour temperatures such as Warm White LEDs or most incandescent bulbs. 

 

It's not the fact it's an LED, it's the colour temperature of the light it produces.  Admittedly most cheap LED units are Cool White (because they are cheaper to produce) but it's blaming the wrong thing.

 

The current fad for very blue-white halogen bulbs in car headlights is currently being investigated for a proposed ISO standard because of this effect.

 

 

  • Greenie 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TheBiscuits said:

OK, I'll bite.  They are mistaken!

 

Cool White colour LEDs will dazzle/destroy night vision more than warmer colour temperatures such as Warm White LEDs or most incandescent bulbs. 

 

It's not the fact it's an LED, it's the colour temperature of the light it produces.  Admittedly most cheap LED units are Cool White (because they are cheaper to produce) but it's blaming the wrong thing.

Thank you.

 

So you are saying that people are wrong to blame LEDs, just most of them including all the cheap ones (such as the ones sold as tunnel lights by Midland Chandlers) .. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Keeping Up said:

Thank you.

 

So you are saying that people are wrong to blame LEDs, just most of them including all the cheap ones (such as the ones sold as tunnel lights by Midland Chandlers) .. 

 

Yes.

 

It's a fine distinction, but a true one.  A very blue-white incandescent lamp would be just as bad.

 

I'm not disagreeing with the dazzle bit!

 

Mind you, these are nine quid for two, delivered:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154109402901

 

12V dc, IP67 rated Warm White LED floodlights

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.